The Fate of Journalism: The End to Newspapers and the Rise of the Internet?

What Happened to Real Informative News?

The Internet has taken over the world. It has spread into every facet of our lives, effecting how we go about our days. It has taken the place of so much, in some cases like Google it helps streamline our time, and in other instances such as YouTube it gives us hour upon hours of new material to spend our time looking at. My question is, with all that the Internet can do and does, how long is it until we no longer have newspapers?

The history of the press in our nation goes back to when we were colonies, in fact it was printed pamphlets that helped fan the flame of revolution. The Founding Fathers of this country relied on the free press greatly and had very high hopes for it. The idea was that with a free press and a competitive market then it would be impossible for voices to be silenced when there were people willing to listen to them.

Fast forward to the now. Our newspapers and other media are controlled by huge corporations that have a choke-hold on the free press. There is no longer an reasonably accessible market for new newspapers and voices to be heard. Our nation's press is held in an oligopoly. A few enormous companies control the news we are fed daily.

This system has led to poor reporting. A desire for increased profit rather then public service. A reluctance to go head to head with those in power who could effect the financial side of the press. Pointless tales of cats in wells and other such trivial nonsense passed off to us as if it were legitimate news.

I believe the Internet can prove to be the answer. Sites such as Associated Content give the common man the ability to tell the world the stories that might actually need to be told. The Internet provides a competitive market near to that which was around at our nation's birth.

In a regular newspaper you are not only given trivial information dressed up as important reporting, but also a lot of other stories and information that you had no interest in. The Internet allows us to search out reporting on specific topics and have a wide range of choices to read from. It allows any number of sites to provide a multitude of information that actually corresponds to our interests.