News media is a very important part of society. Without it, we would have to rely on person-to-person interaction to find out what is happening outside of our immediate environment. For years, newspapers were the dominant source of this information. With the advent of television and the Internet, however, it has become a different story. While many benefits can be argued for these new methods, many web and television outlets use print stories and local reports as a basis for their programming. If print media continues to decline, the entire news sector will also feel the pinch.
With the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, people no longer had to rely on word-of-mouth for their information. Books and other writings could be replicated at a speed never heard of before. The first newspapers sprung up shortly afterward, and the modern press was born. Through many centuries, print journalism grew and developed in Europe, America and the rest of the world. Most settled cities had their own local papers, which became an essential part of each town’s culture.
Even more astonishing is the sheer amount of information to which people then had access. One copy of a major newspaper could contain more information within it than a person in years past had ever been exposed to in a lifetime. This was revolutionary, and it helped to dramatically increase participation and awareness of topics such as politics and global events. Everyone could be conscious of happenings in ways only royalty could before.
That trend continued with the advent of radio and later television. Now not only could local news be covered and national news brought in from other places, but events could be covered live and sent to the entire country in seconds. People in New York could hear and later see what was happening at that very second in California or vice versa. That was later expanded with the creation of television stations solely devoted to news. While many channels had nightly or morning news programs, some stations such as CNN would do news reporting 24/7.
The Internet would increase the expansion even further. Thousands of new websites and blogs popped up, offering articles or commentary on events. Newspapers and television stations also shifted to this new frontier by setting up digital versions of their content. Social media and related sites provided a further medium for information.
Over time, newspapers have provided a smaller and smaller share of total news consumption. A Pew Research Center survey in February 2016 asked adults in the United States about the media they used to find information, specifically the presidential election. They found that 78 percent of Americans used television, 65 percent digital, 44 percent radio, and 36 percent print (These numbers do not add up to 100 due to overlap.) Print’s share is substantially lower in younger age groups.
Lost in this discussion however is the basis for other reporting that print newspapers provide. How many times have you heard a news story on television or the Internet cite a print source? In my own experience, it has been often. The larger an area an organization has to reach, such as a national media outlet, the harder it is to use exclusively their own reporters or information. For example, it would be very time-consuming for the national news to cover the weather of each area of the country in detail, so that is done by local stations. Blogs and Internet-media outlets may have no reporter staff at all and run by analyzing information collected from other sources. Without local print and broadcast media to relay events up to the national level, television channels would have to invest many more resources into on-the-ground reporting and information gathering.
Local newspapers are also part of our cities. The reporters and editors are our friends and neighbors, colleagues and acquaintances. To lose local media would be to lose the personal feel added by having a news source that covers just our area, that has the time and the print space for the stories that are closest to home. While national sources can cover the events happening on a wider scale, a local newspaper is the most effective way to communicate the events that affect us most, those in our cities and rural areas. While appreciating the benefits new technology has brought to us, I would also encourage people young and old to look at, use and support local print media. Our awareness, our local neighborhoods and the world will be better for it.
Connor Kockler is a Sauk Rapids-Rice High School student. He enjoys writing, politics and news, among other interests.
