Although I was unable to attend our in-depth class discussion of the unique ideas presented in Frontline's 4-part NewsWar series, I did view it online and will attempt to react to it now.
This series was quite compelling as it showed me some very unique insights into the future of my industry. We all know how the Internet is changing just about everything these days, but the impact it has had on the news is profound, and as it is shown by Frontline, stands to be one of the most influential developments affecting the presentation of the news in a long time.
Although the newspaper industry remains large and widespread, it is losing the credibility that it once had. Readership primarily falls to older generations, with youngsters second-guessing what we have called in class, "their parent's media." However, even with this decline in newspaper popularity, 81 percent of Americans encounter news at least once a day. This mind-blowing majority speaks directly to the case of growing integration of technology in the dissemination of information. People who are no longer interacting with print media are getting it elsewhere, whether it be an Internet news site, their favorite blog, or on the television (although that medium is falling to the Internet as well).
The Internet has also allowed for diverse and ethnic media sources to get their voice out to thousands more people than might have access to it otherwise. Sites like the one that play the Al Jazeera English channel, rejected and banned in the U.S., are growing in popularity, if for no other reason, because people want to hear both sides of the story, not just what the American public decides to feed them.
What has driven this growing flux of media consumers to the Internet, is the increased curiosity of American's, the ability to question what is given to them as fact. This also demonstrates the quickly growing "blogosphere", where we not only cannot hear the points of views of others, but can share ours as well. What the media should learn from this, is they need to be more thorough and all-encompassing with their coverage, and should share the information in a variety of mediums, if only in the interest of getting the highest volume of facts, to the most people.
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