Commentary & Analysis - Print Journalism vs Digital Journalism

It should come as no surprise that journalism is a field that is time-dependant. News is happening all around us all the time, and whoever gets the most interesting news first and presents it in a pleasing manner gets our attention.

The battle of print journalism vs online journalism is one that has been ongoing ever since news companies started online news portals, and citizens were given a voice through blogs such as this one. So what’s the difference between the two forms? To put it simply, print journalism is viewed in hard copy, while digital journalism is viewed in soft copy. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Taken from postnetfarwest.wordpress.com

The print industry has survived the competition posed by magazines, radio and television over the years. But the advent of great volumes of digital journalism, in the form of blogs, is posing a serious threat to their survival. Not just that, but the timeliness of digital journalism in unbeatable. With the widespread use of smartphones, it is easier for a journalist to spot something as it happens and post it onto their blogs. Digital journalism is also markedly more convenient, and cheaper than their print competitors. This is why most print publications have gone digital.

But having print publications is also vital. Newspapers have a certain feel of credibility and a longer shelf life that just cannot be achieved when viewed online. Some people also tend to, excuse my language, digitally defecate all over the internet, making it hard for readers to know what is true and what is false. It is also a great vehicle for advertisements. When reading a publication online, we rarely take notice of the advertisements scattered around the page, but when reading a newspaper, advertisements are more prominent and we tend to take more notice of them.

Taken from www.americandebtproject.com

Fundamentally however, there are similarities. Taken from http://journalism.about.com/od/ethicsprofessionalism/a/printhistory.htm: “The first newspaper in the American colonies - Benjamin Harris's Publick Occurrences both Foreighn and Domestick - was published in 1690 but immediately shut down for not having a required license. Interestingly, Harris' newspaper employed an early form of reader participation. The paper was printed on three sheets of stationery-size paper and the fourth page was left blank so that readers could add their own news, then pass it on to someone else.”

I found this particular extract to be rather interesting as it shows early signs of the citizen journalism attitude within the news industry. The “add your own news, then pass it on to someone else” method is a clear indication that the newspaper was encouraging citizens to pen down their observations and pass them on, albeit in what we now consider to be a primitive fashion. This would in today’s generation, be blogs or comment boxes on news sites.

Personally, I prefer reading print publications. It’s not just for the tangible product that has is neatly divided into sections and presented professionally, but also for the intangible feeling towards it. What are your opinions? Comment below!

Taken from seekersportal.wordpress.com