In the broad realm of journalism, hard copies of the news seem to be on the way out. Freshmen come to college each year with shiny new technology that is supposed to make the exchange of information much faster and more convenient. A kindle, an iPad, and new smartphones with 4G speed and instant messaging are all newfangled gizmos without which many of us would feel disconnected and wanting for information.
But college newspapers remain strong on their respective campuses. The Spectrum circulation staff still puts out 10,000 hardcopies of its thrice-weekly newspaper on the UB campus despite heavy online support for our publication. The reason is: students are still reading.
We will not flatter ourselves and say that it is because our newsroom is dishing out the most intriguing and hard-hitting news stories. Letters to the Editor are sparse because the only pieces that seem to be worth responding to are the ones that spark controversy or that fall short of a perfectly written piece.
College newspapers are popular because they are culturally relevant to their readership and because they sit neatly outside classes, where students who arrive early can delve into a student story without committing to anything costly or too lengthy.
Fans of hardcopies ourselves, The Spectrum editorial board believes in not only the aesthetic/romantic appeal of having the news sit on your lap, but the integrity and the sense of permanence with which a hardcopy delivers the news. In other words, digital media can change its mistakes and broadcast journalism is here and then gone; print media takes responsibility for itself every time it sets ink to wood pulp.
But we also acknowledge that print sources will not hold fast to media proliferation in the rising of the digital tide. To advocate for that which is less convenient in America is to truly go against the grain, because we know how much Americans love their free time.
It doesn't mean that we are not worried.
Citizen journalism, and the international blogosphere, often pollutes the Internet with poisonous opinions and unsubstantiated "facts" in a frenzied online media free-for-all. It scares us that personal and political blogs are media through which many Americans sometimes get their information and where many go to decide for whom to vote.
This is unfortunately why major publications have been forced to give away their daily news online, charging membership only to view the archives. Many will only go to the websites when something catastrophic happens.
But even as the Internet and technology chip away at everyone's attention span, we know that the people who truly care about the news will continue to subscribe to print copies of news media.
We think that print media will never completely die, mostly because many of us will actively try to resuscitate its important pulse.
But it is not necessarily that the two modes of media, digital and print, need to war against each other; in the future, it will be increasingly important that the two modes work cooperatively.
