Have newspaper become a medium of the past or do they still play an important role in people’s lives?
There was a time when TV came; everybody was worried that Radio would disappear for good. But as we can see, Radio is still taking its important role. How about newspaper? Are they going to lose their position as a mass medium that gives the most current information to people?
In the past, newspapers used to be people’s only access to information. For example, during World War ll, people were waiting impatiently for the newspaper to be issued. They could find hundreds of casualties and the wounded in it and they could read and judge editorials and articles, which they felt were credible.
The situation now has changed. Newspaper is not the only way to get information and people don’t give them absolute credit any more. We can find various media, which has fast and easy access to information like the internet which offers virtually unlimited information. You don’t have to go a newsagent as newspapers are on line as well and logging on is all you have to do. The internet has the most current news available. However, the flood of information and hearsay opinions can lead us to get narrow sighted or to be skeptical basically on every information.
Newspaper doesn’t sit back and watch the other media go ahead. It evolves into easy to read and get, like Metro on the London underground. It is provided for free and still very popular. Several people will read probably one copy in turns. How about tabloids? The Evening Standard prints several versions in a single day to deliver the most current news which compares with the speed of the internet. Newspapers evolve and are still taking successfully their part in people’s lives, I believe.
From time to time, newspapers will change their shapes, the way of printing for economical reasons and so on. I personally still like to grab and hold the paper and scan it to find what I want to read anywhere without any help of electric materials.