There’s been a call to shut down the website of every daily newspaper in the U.S., in association with the Associated Press, for a week. Independence Day is the proposed start date of this temporary “dark” period, the date picked in an effort to stress print media’s founding role in American democracy and emphasize to us exactly where our news comes from. As print journalism continues to hemorrhage out into what seems like an inevitable extinction (operative word “seems”) and newspapers, in particular, see their readerships and staffs dwindle, is this really the best way to shock the system?
One can point to a number of reasons why newspapers are suffering so badly today, but most will point directly at the screen: yes, the Internet. The Information Age in which we currently thrive and stay connected has been fingerpointed as the main — if not sole — culprit behind the newspaper demise. Blogs aggregate information instead of produce it, and I can’t deny the earnest tone of T.J. Sullivan in his web video: what would Drudge report and what would HuffPo post exactly without those stories gleaned from the front (or rather home) pages of printed dailies? Newspapers are roots. But the roots are dying out.
Well, maybe they’re not dying out as much as they are growing out, like a bad weave.
The media consumption landscape has changed such that print journalism is struggling to find its place and its importance. As much as harkening back to Thomas Jefferson and print’s endemic role in American democracy is wonderful for nostalgia, the harsh reality of a 24-hour news cycle readily accessible at any Wi-Fi’d moment mows over said nostalgia in a mouse click. Taking that away only underscores print journalism’s implacability and, in a subtle way, a vengeful attitude towards news consumers. How can print journalism make consumers care when its mechanism for doing so only breeds resentment? Shutting down newspaper websites isn’t a wake-up call for ex-readers to start picking up their papers again; it isn’t an effective way for would-be readers to start subscriptions; it isn’t a meaningful reminder of where our news comes from because loyal news consumers already knew this. It’s the unwillingness to evolve as the beacon of American democracy. It’s a frustration-fueled temper tantrum.
Print journalists aren’t “[protecting] newspapers as a resource” if they do this; they’re not protecting anything other than their own egos. And who will suffer ultimately? Readers and news consumers who want to know what is going in the world via outlets that have become — for better or worse — the norm.
I’m a print enthusiast: I love text and the tangibility of a magazine or newspaper. Throughout college, I ordered the New York Times not only because it was required of my International History class, but also because reading it in class and doing the crossword puzzles were sometimes the only things keeping me awake (I also, like, learned stuff). As far as Sunday morning activities go, a paper and a latte is still, in my mind, de rigeur for just the right amount of mindful “laziness.” A Kindle 2.0 sounds nice, but nothing replaces the experience of walking into a used bookstore and finding a worn copy of The Prince for $1.50, even if said bookstore reeks of death-lite.
It’s devastating, to say the least, to hear about how many print journalists are losing their jobs.
But newspapers and print will not be forgotten; they can’t be. And I think they will be here to stay for awhile (truly). How media and consumers alike can save them will require their evolution: bitter indignation only takes you so far.
“Reading” online will never be the same! — “Screening” enters the
online vocabulary.
Do you “screen” news online, or do you “read” news in print
newspapers? — A new word has been coined to refer to reading
information online, changing the way we take in information
by Dan Bloom
NEW YORK (RUSHPRNEWS) — What you are doing now is not reading, but
“screening.” Yes, you are at this very moment screening the text
printed digitally on this computer screen. You are not reading text on
a paper surface; you are “screening” this article through the lens of
the computer screen in front of you. A new word is born — screening!
When a top computer industry writer at the New York Times was told
about this new term, he told RushPRnews in a one-word email note:
“Hmmmmmmm.”
Screening? Can anyone just coin a new word and make it stick? No, but
new words are coined every day, and some stick and some don’t. Time
will tell whether or not “screening” (to mean “reading information on
a computer screen, as distinct from reading a print newspaper or
magazine or book”) will stay with us or not. For now, the word has
been accepted by the editors at urbandictionary.com and is listed
here:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=screening
Screening is defined as: “To read text on a computer screen, cellphone
screen, Kindle screen or PDA screen or BlackBerry screen; replaces the
term “reading” which now only refers to reading print text on paper.”
Example: “I hate reading print newspapers now. I do all my screening online.”
The word is so new, not everyone has seen it yet. And many do not
agree with its coinage.
Amit Gilboa, an Israeli writer living in Singapore, told RushPRnews:
“No, it’s still reading. Whether in a book, a print newspaper,
chalkboard, whiteboard, it’s still reading words made up of letters.
Screening is still reading.”
However, Hidetoshi Abe in Tokyo, Japan, told this reporter he likes
the new term and agrees it fits our new Internet age. “I think
’screening’ makes perfect sense to represent the way we now take in
information via computer screens. It’s a whole new ballgame.”
Reading, of course, is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols
printed on
a paper surface for the purpose of deriving meaning (reading
comprehension) and/or constructing meaning, according to scholars.
Written information on a
printed page is received by the retina, processed by the primary
visual cortex, and interpreted in Wernicke’s area.
But when we “read” online (or “screen”, in the new coinage), the
digitalized information is processed in a different way. Reading
online is the same thing as reading on a paper surface in a book or
magazine or newspaper.
Reading on a print paper surface is a means of language acquisition,
of communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Screening on
the Internet is a horse
of a different color.
Readers of print paper texts use a variety of reading strategies to
assist with decoding (to translate symbols into sounds or visual
representations of language), and comprehension. Screening online uses
other strategies, and the information is processed by our brains in a
different way as well.
Reading text on print paper is now an important way for the general
population in many societies to access information and make meaning.
However, a new form of reading, called “screening” now takes place when a
person “reads” text on a computer screen or PDA screen or cellphone
screen. This form of reading, now called “screening”, is a very
different form of communcation.
You have just “screened” your very first article online using this new
term. You are now an Internet screener. Congratulations, and welcome
to this amazing new world.
Comments are more than welcome, pro and con.
http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2009/06/19/paper_vs_computer_screen
Alex beam at BSOTN GLOBE says here