More than the facts

In today's age of technology, it is easy to let computers, TVs, mobile phones, wireless handheld devices, etc. permeate everyday life. In my own daily routine I find that I use these devices quite often. At least once a day I use the internet and TV to get news, and as the numbers show — from the research done by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute — more and more Americans are getting their information online. They find it's easier to search for what they want, it provides the most recent news and they can use it on their own time. I agree with all those statements and those are the main reasons I like to use the internet to get my information. But that doesn't necessarily mean that other forms of journalism will completely disappear.

Although I have seen and heard about the decline of newspapers over the past few years, I am optimistic about the future of print journalism. I think there are lots of people that appreciate and respect daily newspapers and do not want to see them go away. But for the demand to stay intact, newspapers need to continue to adapt to the ever changing world around them. They need to be able to offer their audience something different than what broadcast or online journalism can give to readers. For small- to medium-sized communities people are going to turn to their respective newspapers to find local news because the only place online you might find the information is the newspaper's Web site and the local TV stations often pick up the story after the newspaper has all ready printed it. For state, national and international news it's important for newspapers to add something more to the stories than just the facts, which is what is mainly found online and on TV.

n Mitchell Stephens' "Beyond News" article in the Columbia Journalism Review he talks about how the Web does pose a threat to newspapers and if print journalists don't handle the risk correctly he says "the dismal prophesy currently being proclaimed by their circulation and demographic charts may very well be fulfilled." What he offers as a solution is something that I think is a very good idea and a trend I try to follow when I work as a wire editor at the Missourian and decide what wire articles are going to be in the next day's paper. He suggests that what print media should be offering is "analysis: thoughtful, incisive attempts to divine the significance of events — insights, not just information." It is a lot easier now for people to get breaking news at any point during the day and that usually means simply going to your home page online, whether it be yahoo, MSN or just visiting CNN.com, BBC.com or other news sites.

By the time people pick up their newspaper the next day, they don't need to see the stories they've been reading online or watching on streaming TV news shows, like Headline News, the whole day before hand. What I think newspapers should be offering their readers is context for the stories or how to interpret why an event might have happened, such as giving background on a politician that has been involved in a scandal.

Print journalists are concerned with being objective, as they rightly should be, but in order to provide something more than other media outlets, we need to realize that our role has shifted and we need to learn to be analysts more often. It's hard to provide that extra information when the whole world is constantly judging the media for being biased in either direction. What we can provide readers are interpretations of current events — helping to connect the dots between issues and ideas that people might not have recognized on their own. But it will be difficult to teach newspaper readers that there will be more opinion pieces, but after some adapting I think readers will definitely appreciate the extra something they can't find anywhere else than in investigative and analysis stories in newsprint.

Downie and Kaiser's The News About the News speaks on how journalists today "are better educated...than their forebears; many are recognized experts in their fields." Becoming an expert in certain areas gives reporters the basis to investigate and break down stories readers all ready know the facts about. Or their interpretations can go much more in depth than a network TV newscast. Downie and Kaiser explain it as, "the world of news without newspapers would be something like a sleek convertible without an engine." Print journalism can go in depth where broadcast news can't.

Some of the best journalism I've read has been articles that have taught me something. It's easy to find out about the AIDS epidemic in Africa, but discovering why and how it has been so widespread is something an expert can help me with. Print journalists can continue to make a difference in the world by writing more opinion and analysis pieces. And this type of journalism will also help ensure that newspapers stick around and give the world something they can't find by logging onto a computer or flipping on their television.