Go Print!

(Source: 'Practicum Pioneers')

Print newspaper readerships slowly declining. The analysis of newspaper audiences reveals that young people are not using newspaper as their main news source. Young people have grown up with their computers, iPods, cell phones, the Internet, user created media and participatory media (Foley, 2007).

However, this does not mean that print newspapers are going ruined completely, rather the statistics show that print newspaper are adapting. However not enough are utilizing social media online to interact with their readers.

Yes, I agree that our society today becomes more intellectual in selecting their own stories.Therefore they tend to shift into alternative media like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, or online newspaper.However, according to Dasselaar (2006) journalism in mainstream media still has an important to play in society.

Mc Nair states that journalists, journalism and traditional media will not experienced any form of death, because they are needed on so many social, political and cultural levels worldwide ( Mc Nair, 2009). In recognition of this, I feel that traditional media has transformed and improved under the pressures of the new media.

Ultimately, Malaysians relied on the mainstream media for information on corruption but they were concerned with biased reporting on the issue
( Center for Independent Journalism). Online news portal such as Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insider are popular as alternative news sources, especially on politics (The Malaysian Insider, 2009).

The Malaysian Insider

(Source: The Malaysian Insider)

The advantages of online newspapers is that they provide information that is updated constantly, as opposed to print newspapers which have only limited number of additions per day. Alternative media promotes open space for readers to create open discussion about anything especially on political issue. Although journalist in alternative media or bloggers are not graduate journalist from major journalism studies, but still the readers believe what they are reported, just because they are close to people's interest (Bentley et al.,2006).

There is also the interactive element where the readers can leave their comments on the website. It is also much cheaper to host on web servers than publish on print. Online newspapers can aggregate together a large number of related articles from many sites.

However, the disadvantages of alternative media are the danger of altering or manipulation by hackers or provocative remarks posted in the comments section. Also, the strong element in newspaper is the format of the professional journalist in mainstream media which still impact reader to believe in newspaper as a primary source ( Foley,2007). The accountability and and accuracy of newspaper's content is no questioned.

News organisations such as MSNBC, The Providence Journal and The Dallas Morning News are now leading with blogs run by their editors information gatekeepers by spending up their news publishing cycle, while still maintaining the objectivity and accuracy of traditional journalism
( Lasica, 2003). Readers will always turn to traditional media as trusted sources of premier information and that will never change.


References

Bentley,C.H,Hamman,B,Ibold,H,Littau,J,Meyer,H 2006,Sense of Community as a Driver for Citizen Journalism,University of Missouri,Columbia,viewed 9 June 2010.

Centre for Independent Journalism 2009, Public want media to be more effective in reporting on corruption, cijmalaysia.org, viewed 9 June 2010,
http://www.cijmalaysia.org/content/view/513/6/

Dasselaar,A 2006, On the Journalistic Aspects of Dutch Blogsphere, Journalism and New Media Leiden University, viewed 8 June 2010,
http://www.arjandasselaar.nl/thefifthestate.pdf

Foley,FC 2007,Why Must Citizen Journalist Fill the Information Gaps Left by Mainstream Media?,Quinnipiac University, viewed 9 June 2010,
http://www.noisemakersproductions.com/pdf/CJ-v-mainmedia.pdf

Lasica, J.D. 2003,'Blogs and Journalism Need Each Other', Nieman Reports,vol.57,no.3,pp.70-74, viewed 9 June 2010,
http://socialmediaclub.pbworks.com/f/blog%20and%20journalism.pdf

McNair, B 2009,'Journalism in the 21st century:evolution,not extinction', Journalism, vol.10,no.3,pp.347-349, viewed 9 June 2010,
http://jou.sagepub.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/cgi/reprint/10/3/347.pdf

The Malaysian Insider 2010, About Us, viewed 9 June 2010,
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/about-us