A little early, but who cares ...
1. Could this idea be the future of newspapers? And, how might this trickle down to high school journalism?
2. How can The Voice capitalize on new media? Is this the way to increase our readership? Do high school students use this form of communication?
Share, comment, inform.
17 comments:
I think the idea of a blog based newspaper is interesting. Yet, I would not support the idea, let alone consider it a real newspaper.
I don't believe that blog posts are equivalent to newspaper articles. Anyone can write a blog post. Writing a good article requires experience and training if you ask me.
Blogs are most know for being biased! And thats the exact opposite of what a newspaper should be. Sure, there could be a newspaper full of editorials, but people trust articles in their local papers because they know the process these articles have been through, and respect the people that are writing them. I don't think this would be a reality in such as a blog type newspaper.
Plus, if people can look at blogs on the internet, why waste paper and print them? Aren't blogs meant for the internet and internet only? Probably not, but I think it would be nice if it was kept that way.
What if Mary published this blog on paper and distributed it like a newspaper. Maybe not a great example, but yes, I don't think it would work.
high school newspapers tend to be (at least I think) "free" to some extent (we have SOME people who subscribe, but its basically free to anyone who wants it). so, with that said, I don't see a huge difference because the big pull is that these papers would be free.
However, blogs are a very different approach than your typical column-article-based newspapers, and I think they could actually do quite well; just look at how popular they are today. Why not give someone a mix of blogs they may already know about and new ones too so they can expand their blogosphere knowledge.
I agree that Amanda though that it's a waste of paper, but then again, so is all newspapers now that they're online. I just think this is another clever approach that probably couldn't deeply impact a high school newspaper, because high school newspapers are already local newspapers that are (or tend to be) free
From a business standpoint, I think that, depending on the market, a blog-centric, free newspaper could do very well. That said, there is no way that a newspaper like this could ever gain national popularity or even carry the credibility necessary to be considered a true news source.
I think that one of the reasons why blogs are so engaging and popular is because of the level of "interactivity" they bring to journalism. Bloggers can like other articles to their own, upload and embed Youtube videos, and the comment system really makes the reader feel like he/she can get his/her own word out there. When you put a blog on paper, you take away all of these aspects of a blog.
In terms of the effectiveness of the idea for a high school setting, I don't believe that this idea is an ideal solution for many of the reasons that Josh stated. However, I do really like the idea of a completely electronic high school newspaper, with a print version being optional. This idea (one that schools like Redwood have actually started to implement) would be great for a high school readership for a couple of reasons: its on the web, where teens often spend free time and it has the level of interactivity that a blog has. All of a sudden, you bring a whole new level of engagement to the reader in a convenient location, while at the same time getting rid of printing costs and the scheduling conflicts that come with a print-based paper. While I certainly believe in the merits of an actual "paper", technological advancements in the form of slim tablet computers and e-ink based, internet enabled paper will ultimately lead to a newspaper that functions solely through the online domain.
While I think that a blog newspaper might do well economically, like Amanda, I think that it would not be able to become a credible newspaper for people.
As Amanda stated, "anyone can write a blog post." Since anyone can write a blog post, there is no accountability for accuracy in their articles. Even though there would be editors that sorted through the articles and chose which ones would be appropriate to publish, I think that it would be hard and time consuming for the editors to verify the facts that are printed. When a journalist works at a newspaper, he is responsible for writing the most accurate article he or she can. However, on a blog-based newspaper, the writers are really not accountable to anyone, and are not really under any threat of backlash if their articles are not properly researched. I do not know the real issues surrounding censorship and slander in the newspaper business, but how would a blog-based newspaper deal with those issues, especially if they never even see the people who write their articles.
Also, one of the reasons that print newspapers are suffering is because they are becoming outdated. Why should people go through the effort of buying a newspaper when it is available at the push of a button on the internet? Also, many people like the convenience of the online editions because the articles are more easily accessible. If these are true, then is it really a good idea to go from an internet edition to a printed edition, even if the printed edition is free?
Lastly, I agree with Nish about how an internet-based school newspaper would be a good idea. The raised level of convenience would attract students and if all they had to do was go to a website to get their school news, I think the school newspaper would be read a lot more. Maybe students could even post responses to articles that are on their school newspaper's website. There evidently some unexplored territory in the newspaper business, as this article shows.
I too think that a blog based newspaper would undermine the hard work and talent of reporters who have spent years perfecting their skills. Reporters deserve to be paid for their expertise and the time they have taken to become so good at what they do. These are the voices that people should hear and trust rather than the words of someone who is being used to cut down costs of a real newspaper.
It is sad to me that we have to consider this sort of turn for newspapers due to the economy. Journalism and good reporting has historically been so important to our society and when this is compromised I think we will witness a new level of economic sacrifice.
Although I am very opposed to the idea of having a free blog based newspaper replace the traditional, time honored paper, I see the need for a free news source to educate more people about current events. I fear that many people do not value the news and what is going on in the world enough to spend money on a paper and a free source would certainly expand readership.
The idea of blog newspapers is really good. I think that the most exciting aspect of it is tailoring the issue to what specific communities are interested in. This reminds me of the yahoo news feed, where you can select different news sources that you want to see on the page. Like most people I enjoy customizing anything that I can, and the idea of doing this in print news is in my opinion revolutionary.
In terms of advertisements, I think that companies would love to hop on board. If for example, the company is technology based, they would probably buy space in papers being distributed to places like silicon valley. This also is advantageous for readers because they are basically presented with the news that they want along with advertisements that interest them. I know that I would enjoy an NBA news feed in my paper, probably complimented by ads for NBA TV, or basketball apparel outlets in the area or online. If this idea takes off, it will replace common newspapers.
I think the idea of a newspaper based on blogs is a unique idea. However, how is it still a newspaper? I view newspapers as a place where you are able to recieve unbiased information. Also, it is a place where you can get the latest news hence the name (newspaper). I do not view it as a place where people who are not staff writers are allowed to comment on the issue. I can turn to a newspaper having confidence that i am not reading false material. In blogs, people write what they want not necessarily knowing all the true facts. Like Amanda, I do not see the point of wasting paper to print blogs that people could read on the internet. They could save trees instead!
However, I could see where they are all coming from with this idea. The failing economy is affecting everyone. People are looking for alternative ways to promote their product. In addition, with the failing economy people have to/have already get/gotten rid of simple or what they feel is not really necessary things. One of these things are newspapers. Newspapers have had a decrease in sales. So, it makes sense that they would come up with free newspaper because more and more people are turning to the internet. Therefore, they do not want to draw people away from newspapers.
Since high school newspapers are generally free, i do no see high school newspapers turning to the blog idea. However, people can surprise you.
I love the idea of a blog newspaper! I by no means think we should eliminate our paper newspaper but I think a blog would be a great way to keep the voice up to date and interactive.
With a blog newspaper we would be able to communicate with our readers much more often. Say, a basketball game was going on, we could update the scores of the game (at time-outs, half time, ect.). We could even post videos of Merlin dunking!
I am always online and I find that my online time and my MA news time never overlap. If we had a Voice Blog more readers would be up to date on MA events. Parents could easily access the blog and we could post links to external sources.
All in all, I think a blog would be a great thing to have. I would never vote towards eliminating the newspaper but perhaps it is time we got online.
I am definitely pro-blog as long as it is in addition to and not at the cost of the actual paper newspaper. I suppose I'm rather a traditionalist in this sense. While I most certainly read blogs and online papers daily, there is something wonderful about being able to feel the newsprint and see the layout design in your hands, not on a computer screen.
However, I think that an online, more frequently updated version would be a wonderful way to cover the stories that we cannot cover in the Voice (and or Whisper) because they would no longer be relevant by the time that the edition came out. This is certainly the case with many news stories and A&E reviews.
It would also be a great way to organize an archive of past stories so that everyone can access past coverage easily and don't have to search all over the school for a past edition.
As opposed to everyone else, I actually am commenting on the other piece about new media.
I find rather surprising that The Convent of the Sacred Heart is supporting means of media and communication like Twitter. I did not expect schools (especially relatively conservative ones like Convent) to follow such media that is often considered ‘unreliable.’ However, like Anjuli has mentioned in class, Twitter can actually provide some of the best up to date information about the world around us. I think it is fabulous that schools are looking into these types of new media, though I am skeptical of their place with The Voice. Even if we developed a website or similar forum with timely information and digital copies of our articles, I doubt we would get much traffic on the site. It isn’t that high school students aren’t using forms of new media (I know students in and out of journalism class who use Twitter, and many of my friends frequent news websites and blogs with information on the newest, most interesting things on the web) rather, they seem to prefer to spend any time they have finding out about the larger world around them as opposed to our insular MA community.
However, I still think there is hope for our readership. The newspaper has no doubt increased exponentially in quality since I joined freshman year. Right now we are just gaining back the trust we once lost with so many errors and half-worked articles. As long as we continue to produce higher and higher quality work with interesting material, our readership will continue to grow. I think it is great to include sections like ‘Overseen, Overheard’ which tap into the new media idea as long as they continue to be executed well.
Although I check news sources online every morning and throughout the day I dearly love paper newspapers and worry about their decline. The newly intensified internet world has taken on a life of its own in creating new ways for people to communicate. I think the idea of a printed blog is great but at the same time I wonder if people who are already reading the blog online will bother to grab a paper. Or if people start reading the paper edition if they will start reading online after a while just as people have done with newspapers. I love that the Printed Blog is combining all the different aspects of the way people communicate and get news but it will be interesting to see how successful the paper is. I also think it will be interesting to see the reaction within the blogging community. Will people be supportive of writers who potentially gain more readership because their blogs are put into print? Or will there be a backlash in the blogging world, saying that the nature of the blog was meant for the internet?
On a completely different note I agree with Suz that it would be really cool if we had a Voice blog which the community checked into alot. Unfortunately I think it would take a lot of work to have the Voice blog become something of a "bookmark" in the community. But the idea of having timely articles, sports scores, photos, contributing writers and getting people to comment on all the articles etc. is awesome.
While I agree with some of the points already said, I have a slightly different idea about the blogs.
I know that some people say that the problem with blogs is that they are biased, but I really don't see an issue in that. All writing, regardless of where it comes from, has a bias. Newspaper reporters tend to be able to control their biases better than others, but the articles that they write are still biased to some degree. Blogs are much more biased, this is true, but the nature of the bias is also usually easy to find. For example, if we take a look at the blog "The Unofficial Apple Weblog", we can easily see from the title that the content will be baised towards Apple. In that way, reading a blog is just like reading an editorial in a paper, except you know the bias ahead of time. True, some blogs are sloppily written and poorly edited, but there are many more that are written very well and edited carefully.
Before the advent of blogs, newspapers were one of the only way to get news stories out to the public, and because of that people had a strong interest in reading them and buying them. Now, anyone can go online and read stories from Reuters or Google or Yahoo News, so buying a paper might seem unnecessary. Also, most of those articles on Reuters or Google News were written by reports, who worked hard to be good at their craft. I see a great value in those articles, because the reporters that write them put as little bias into the articles as possible, so that the reader can get just the news and no opinion. However, people are also looking for more than just news, and blogs fill that need.
People today are not looking so much for news sources but rather they are looking for informed people’s opinions and comments about the news. Since the news is so easily available, what’s more important is finding out what that news means. I don’t know how many people watch AC360, but I think it’s an example of news commentary rather than news reporting, and I think that’s what people are starting to want more than plain news. Anderson Cooper will report a story for about 5 minutes, and then spend double or triple that time discussing it with a guest or colleague. The discussion he has helps people form their opinions about the news that they probably already read about online. They don't watch his show for the stories; they watch it for the commentary.
What’s happening with blogs and news commentary is not a devaluing of talented reporters but a changing of the times and culture, and the news industry should change with it.
The Printed Blog
A free, portable, RSS feed in the form of a printed blog could definitely be successful. While I don’t think that a printed blog with user generated content could replace the traditional paper, it has the potential to flourish as a supplement to the paper.
I actually strongly disagree with some what has been said above. Printed news articles today are hardly “unbiased” (don’t even get me started about the Marin IJ); in my local newspaper there will often be important details left out, and completely inane, esoteric stories printed on the front page. Ironically, I will usually take a trip to an online news source, bbc.com, for the most helpful information on what is happening around me (even for news about the U.S.).
The very nature of blogs promotes subjective thinking, so why don’t we use that to our advantage? Papers should still have the “objective”, “straight” news reporting as their main news vehicle, but having something like (as Michael commented) AC360 printed alongside could absolutely work. Discussion is an inevitable subset of opinionated writing, and having something like “The Printed Blog” will allow readers take Anderson Cooper around with them, and give them the option to comment and converse online about something they strongly agreed/disagreed with in print.
When the online edition of the Voice eventually goes live, we might be able to have a blog that is updated every other day, and where every person in the class posts once per rotation. (ex. Person θ would post, then Person φ, then Person ρ, and when everybody in class had posted once, Person θ would post again) I see two possible routes we could take in choosing content.
First, this Voice Blog might be a place where people on the staff write about their opinions on the news (both within the school setting and out). People outside of the staff could also upload writing to this blog, and much like “The Printed Blog”, Voice editors could decide which of these stories are appropriate, and publish the controversial, unpopular views on issues that people may feel uncomfortable revealing at school, anonymously on this blog.
Or maybe this Voice Blog could be place for people to talk about individual interests. I would love to see Nish discuss and “talk sports” with others in the community, to see Ben review radio stations, and to see others try and rant about technology with me. In a sense, this is combining personal blogs into one gigantic entertainment hub that would receive much more exposure than any individual would. (However, this might convince students to spend more time procrastinating on the internet…)
Either way, blogs—a character limit-less Twitter—has potential to help papers, including the Voice, gain readership. I think that the ability to give the community a public place to comment on our articles is much needed.
Tiras Lin
I am conflicted about the idea of a "blog paper." However, I think that the very existence of such a thing reflects the evolving media culture. As much as some people hate it, print newspapers are dying. It sounds harsh, but the evidence is all around us. I do not think that journalism will cease to exist. However I think the way that people receive their news will continue to change.
It has become apparent in recent years that the public enjoys to either be involved in writing the news (through blogs...) or to get their news from an entertaining source like Stephen Colbert. Reading a print paper just isn't scintillating enough for this new generation of news readers.
I think that the print blog is a nice idea because it helps a reader sift through the millions of blogs online. I would also say that the "print blog" could potentially be a reliable news source because the people choosing them may be fact checking (however I am not sure of this as the article didn't mention anything about this...) This might even be a new form of journalism/editing: sifting through the blogosphere to find reliable, well written blog posts and compiling them into a full paper for daily publication.
I think if we had a blog newspaper, that would be super rad. We could post a lot of videos and pictures and slide shows and stuff. I believe that blogs would be more effective and Earth friendly than normal newspapers because our generation is based off of technology, so if there was a blog newspaper than I feel more of our generation will read the articles.
I feel like newspapers can be biased and so would blogs and I feel it would just be so much easier to have a blog newspaper than having to take a lot of time formatting a normal newspaper. LETS GO FOR IT!
I didn't leave this until the last minute... never!
I actually rebelled and read the new media (twitter) article. And it wasn't very interesting. If I see another article in a major newspaper about Obama and new media I think I might just stop caring that these guys are dying out.
Anyway, it actually is an interesting topic, despite having been beaten to death with a stick. And all this new media Web 2.0 consumer-generated content hoopla is here to stay. Whether people are getting their information from the Colbert Report, AC360, facebook, or twitter, they're getting it online. And if they're gonna pay attention for more than 140 characters, it had damn well better be for something good.
So I think it would be foolish for the Voice to kick it up a notch and take itself into the 21st century. I love print as much as the next guy, but the sad truth is I rarely read anything in dead-tree format anymore. These days I don't even make it through the two magazines I subscribe to. (That said, they are the Economist and Wired... not exactly a quick skim.) To be brutally honest, I wouldn't even read the Voice cover-to-cover if I didn't know I was going to be tested on it.
So I entirely agree that we need to supplement our paper with more of those bite-sized, up-to-the-minute stories that people love. The paper is here to stay (at least as long as Mary Collie is its advisor) but I see it more as a place for editorials, features, and anything else as long as it's fun to read. As a few people have pointed out, a website would let us cover events or spontaneous stuff that don't work with the timeline of our paper. Maybe we could get more guest writers. And we could make it a portal for MA information... to steal Abigail's idea, we can aggregate info about sports scores, upcoming events, student blogs, and any other resources.
None of this would be very hard to do, and based on the number of people who sound excited about it in these comments, I'm thinkin' we should go for it. I'd be super-excited to see this happen before I leave MA. I've got some rusty web-design skills to work with – I'd like to challenge myself (and the rest of the staff) to create a Voice website by the end of the year.
I realize no one will read this because it's 11:30 on a Saturday night and you're all done with posts for the night.... Oh well.
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