Script:
The golden age of the newspaper: You can hear the resounding “ding!” of the return of typewriters, the light shuffling of newsprint on a train, and the shouts of a cliché paperboy in one of those folded caps, alerting us to “read all about it.” [Sound bite: “Extra, extra”]
We picture something out of Citizen Kane, an era wherein a newspaper business seemed like a good way to invest time and fortune. [Sound bite: Citizen Kane]
Today, things are a little different. To businesspeople, writers, and ordinary readers alike, the newspaper industry seems to be a series of downward-sloping graphs these days. Readership is down, so advertising revenue is down, so employment is down, so content is down, continuing in a ceaseless, rhythmic cycle.
In the last eleven years, over fifty thousand jobs newspaper and magazine jobs have been cut, according to a Pew Research study. Given this distressing evidence, it’s no surprise that print newspaper revenue would send all of Wall Street into a panicked frenzy.
Critics are quick to look at this data and proclaim that people just aren’t interested in the news anymore, especially blaming younger audiences. But behind these statistics are perspectives, reasons as to why the audience might not be following the news as closely. I talked with news readers, writers, and professors in hopes of some answers. First, I turned to random, passerby students at the University of Michigan. Immediately, their associations with the overall idea of newspapers were clear:
[Student Interview 1]
Allison: What adjectives come to mind when I say, ‘newspaper’?
Nikea: I would have to say maybe like, print, old . . . When I think of people who read, like, physical newspapers, I think of maybe like older people, maybe like my mom, dad, grandparents.
A: Like a grandma?
N: Yeah.
[Student Interview 2]
Allison: Alright. So what kind of person do you associate with a physical newspaper?
Michael: Old people, my dad. And, like business people. Because they keep Wall Street Journals and shit around all the time, and I’m like, I don’t have time to read that. I had the Wall Street Journal the physical form, and I didn’t have time to pick it from my mailbox every day, and it would kind of pile up. And then I couldn’t read through all of it, so I’m just kind of like it’s dead paper. I’m killing trees.
A: So why do you think so many young people steer away from staying up-to-date on the news, and that sort of thing?
M: It takes time. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
And even though “ain’t nobody got time for that,” they still found time to read the news now and again; just in different formats.
A: When was the last time you read a newspaper?
M: Um, three hours ago.
A: So what formats would you be most likely to read the news in?
N: I feel like we would most likely read news online, and through social media. Maybe like newspaper company that has like an online website, I feel like more people would read that on there than in physical.
M: Definitely online. It’s just more convenient. You don’t have the big, like, newspaper thing. Digital things are easier because they’re just a lot more convenient and accessible than paper media.
Responses from these students show what we already knew: print media is on its way out. However, simultaneously, they give us a window to something we may not have seen coming: young people still want news coverage; they just want change as well.
This is where digitization comes into play. According to Pew Research data, recent decrease in legacy media employment is mainly concentrated in the field of print news. Meanwhile, digitally-native news sources such as Vice and The Huffington Post are actually increasing in staff and seeing readership gains.
On a local, University-wide scale, student-run university publications, published by millennials and influenced by millennial readers, hint at what may be to come. Megan McDonald, Editorial Page Editor at the University of Michigan’s primary student newspaper, The Michigan Daily, explains how technology influences the publication’s practices.
[Jump to: Megan McDonald Interview]
Digital news also provides news organizations with increased opportunity to engage with readers, from video content to interactive data visualization. An entire course at U of M is devoted to this digital disruption, led by Visiting Professor in Journalism Louisa Lim, former NPR and BBC correspondent. I had the opportunity to speak with Louisa about her first-hand, professional experience working with digital news first-hand, and how this may have shaped her reporting.
[Jump to: Louisa Lim Interview]
As mentioned by Louisa, social media has had its impact on journalism. It is apparent that hashtags and retweets are successfully reaching new audiences who may not have actively sought out news content. But with the shift to digital news, however, comes increased potential for questionable ethics. To explore this ethical perspective, I spoke with Anthony Collings, former reporter for CNN, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal and current professor in Communications Studies at the University of Michigan, specifically teaching a course on Ethics in Journalism.
[Jump to: Anthony Collings Interview]
Talking with those in and outside of the journalism industry about media, money, and morals brings to light a general trend: the times are changing, and so is journalism. Many news outlets are adapting to the ever-changing needs of their audiences, whilst attempting uphold ethical standards along the way. The “dings” of typewriters have transformed into the “tweets” of social media, and paperboys have been replaced by google searches.
But as with everything, nobody can predict the future. The journalism industry is on an everchanging journey, with a destination unknown. Still, for now at least, there is one thing we know for sure: news isn’t dead, it’s just different.
I experienced a major turning point in my growth as a writer when I wrote and edited a radio piece for my Minor in Writing Gateway course, I was prompted to remediate my writing into a new form, based on my "Repurposing" piece, a mock-New York Times article on the economic future of the journalism industry in the midst of the digital age. I had always been interested in podcasts and radio journalism, but had never actually written and recorded anything myself. So, I entered the great unknown of multimedia storytelling and chose to complete a radio piece in the style of an NPR broadcast.
Quickly, I learned that writing isn't just about pens and paper (or even keyboards and Microsoft Word). To start the project, I interviewed professors, random passerby students, and a student editor on the topic. I found that interview questions are a genre in themselves, and struggled to articulate my inquiries in just the right manner. Actually going out into the world and holding the interviews got me out of my comfort zone and, for the first time, I actually felt like a reporter. Over the course of transcribing interviews for four hours, I was able to naturally pick out which quotes I wanted to include to back up and question my underlying argument, and explore the different perspectives that come into play when considering digitization’s effect on journalism.
To my surprise, I found that editing audio really isn’t very different from editing any essay. My introduction had to have a quirky little hook, and I tried to match my tone of voice to the engaging-yet-factual tone of my writing. I picked which quotes I wanted to use, and incorporated them with smooth transitions to contribute to the piece’s flow. If something seemed out of place, I cut it out or moved it to a different section of the piece. I felt like this new medium gave me a greater sense of artistic liberty than I had in traditional writing projects, and for the first time I saw radio’s potential to reach a completely new audience, potentially of non-readers (or just those who like to multitask). Actually hearing the voices of interviewees gave my writing depth, adding credibility and intrigue to quotes that one may have otherwise glazed over in a print piece, and the potential to incorporate music and sound bites opened the door for new opportunities to further emphasize the writing’s tone and put the listener in a particular mindset.
This radio piece got me to think outside the box when it came to my own writing and inspired a new era of multimedia compositions as part of my writing evolution. I went on to take a podcast class just for fun the next year, where I further explored the audio genre and its storytelling potential. Overall, it was a great learning experience to write, record and edit a radio piece in its entirety (aside from having to hear my own voice recorded).