The question is "Whats the future of journalism?," Since there are so many media platforms around, which media platform will survive?
Newspaper exists since 1950s and had been a very crucial media that updates and delivers the public with the latest news. Newspapers back in the old days only have printed words but as trend passed by according to Kress & van. Leeuwen (1998), the written text is no longer structured by linguistic means, through verbal connectors and verbal cohesive devices but visually, through layout, through the spatial arrangement of blocks of text, of pictures and other graphic elements on the page. Visual then creates larger attention in order to attract audiences.
However in the late 1990s, the 24 hour television channels and the Internet affects the business model of the newspaper. This lead to newspaper around the world to launch the online editions in order to keep up with the circulation of audience. According to The Guardian's uber-blogger, Roy Greenslade, "The reason that young people are not buying, is not simply about them choosing to go to the net, they are going to the net, of course, but they're no longer seeing the paper as part of the unifying element of the home." Young people are now equip with mobilise technology that they no longer consider the traditional paper that keeps them update.
There has been the degree to which text of all kinds necessarily 'participate' in genre and the extend to which they are likely to participate in more than one genre at once (Derrida, 1990). Therefore, since there are so many genre these days, newspaper may not be the first choice of the public's media. Again, people turn to the Internet where all news and information is a click away.
However, will newspaper die one day? CBS President, Leslie Mooves said "This is not a TV company, newspaper company, it's also not an online company, it's an audience company, and that is just what it's about, it's about audience, and the smart media executives and the smart media companies will be the ones who follow the consumer or the user, not the other way around like it used to be before.
Again, its about the content that matter most. It's the really good content that will lead the media to win, and it won't change the journalism practices as the result of it. In short, the best story will win.
References
Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 1998. "Front pages: The Critical analysis of newspaper layout," Approaches to Media Discourse, p.186-187
Neale, S. , "Introduction: What is genre?," The Television Genre Book, p.1-3
The Media Report, Survival of media platforms for journalism, Viewed 7th June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2009/2436717.htm
In my opinion, I feel that indeed the newer technologies are overtaking the traditional ones as days go by. Retrieving news from Internet has become so easy and convenient. I agree that youngsters these days are turning to the net for information. At the end of the day, the media that is able to engage its audience the most will win.
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