The Evolution of the Newspaper of the Future

Rooted from The Evolution of the Newspaper of the Future by Chris Lapham, there are two powerful forces that have emerged to change the mass communication model. First is the use of computers as a means of processing, analyzing, and disseminating information. Second is the constantly accelerating capacity of that technology to enhance communication so it is almost unbounded by time and space. True enough, people nowadays prefer getting information from the computer/internet. I think the reason is that because they have an access through the internet everywhere, like there are some places here in Manila like restaurants, coffee parlor, etc. where they offer Wi-Fi services. People with their laptops can access through the internet for free without an external modem, internet card and a telephone line. Another is no matter how far your loved ones may be and how long an important issue has been, you can still find it because of the constant accelerating capacity of technology to enhance communication.

It is true that this new communication revolution is shifting power to the people because they can publish anything they want, they can post their videos through youtube.com, they can get the things they want that are not available here in Manila because of e-bay and so on and so forth.

But a media critic and former executive producer of the CBS Evening News, Jon Katz said that online papers don’t work commercially or conceptually. They take away what’s best about reading a paper and don’t offer what’s best about being online. The point of the newspaper is to filter the worthwhile information, then print it.

Journalists of today must give their best in researching, reporting and analyzing news information before they publish it because in doing so, it can improve the quality of the data in analysis components. They must not publish inaccurate news to the masses because that will never be a success to him/her and everyone else in the newsroom.

A part of me agrees with what George Gilder said that the computer is a perfect compliment to the newspaper because it really enables the existing news industry to deliver its product in real time. It hugely increases the quantity of information that can be made available like archives, maps, charts and other supporting material. It also opens the way to upgrading the news with full screen photography and videos, while hugely enhancing the richness and timeliness of the news, etc.