Even if the trappings of print journalism migrate to the web, will consumers understand the difference between quality content and dreck? One of the advantages of print publication is precisely that it’s expensive. That means there’s a hurdle to getting published, and thus the people with money had at least some incentive to make sure their content providers were providing a level of journalistic integrity, etc. The simple act of buying a newspaper guaranteed that I was getting something of quality. My fear is that the flocking to the internet will be accompanied by even further erosion of people’s ability to tell the difference between quality journalism and simple flaming. For example, one place erosion has been happening both online AND offlien is this business about presenting “balanced” points of view around the “debate” or “controversy” on every topic, even when there actually IS no debate or controversy, except for a marginal nutjob who takes a contrary point of view. In a democracy, having high-quality information is key. We have high-quantity information, and have been losing quality steadily. I fear the internet is tanking the quality dimension even further.

I go online almost every day to sites of some daily newspapers. We still receive two different print dailies. There’s something very comforting reading the paper while drinking my morning coffee. Sure hope print journalism lives a very long time yet sadly see the online writing on the wall.

Liz, the depth of journalism could be compromised a bit by the tilt towards Internet and cable-TV as primary news sources. I’m an old newspaper writer/editor myself, and have fond memories of it. But I see no serious problems with what’s happening. The Internet is great. It’s way quicker for breaking news, audio and visual communication, and so forth. But what scares me a bit is how many journalism professionals and people who are graduating with journalism degrees will have to find work in another field. Of course, that’s old hat to me. Radio news pays barely above minimum wage, and newspaper reporting isn’t much better, unless you’re one of the big studio talk-show hosts or columnists. But any hard-core journalist knows that it all begins with quality writing and investigating. And the vast, vast majority of top journalists wrote for a newspaper at some point. To me, it’s almost impossible to be considered a true journalist if you haven’t cut your teeth covering beats for newspapers.