Monday, December 8, 2014

Online News Pages vs. Print Newspapers

      The invention of the world wide web has changed the world that we live in. The internet influences and constantly changes our general habits, creates new trends, helps to keep in touch with each other, and keep up with the happenings all over the world. This medium is slowly superseding almost every other medium which reported news and informed people beforehand. People tend to watch their favorite series on the internet instead of the television, listen to music online instead of turning on the radio, and of course, read news digitally instead of buying newspapers. Several papers in the UK, such as the Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and also The Independent itself have now more online readers than print readers. The purpose of this essay is to highlight why thr internet is taking over the role of print newspapers, focusing on three main points.
      First of all, online news articles are easy to update. In the case of newspapers, if a printing error happens, publishers have to reprint the whole paper or apologize for the mistakes in the subsequent copy. Print papers cannot inform their readers constantly about the ongoing events. Journalists have to sum up the main points of an event until their deadline, and everything that happens afterwards is going to take place in the following day's copy. On the other hand, digital news articles can be corrected or refreshed at any time, hence they are able to give a continuous flow of the current news. When some kind of catastrophe happens, a serious decision attracts the world's attention, a governmental election is in progress, and in several other cases the audience demands a permanent connection with the occurrences. Digital newspapers are able to provide this connection, which is a great advantage in comparison to print ones.
      Secondly, online newspapers are easy to access regardless of location. A newspaper subscription requires a fixed place where the paper is delivered to, but an online subscription is accessible at any place through a computer, tablet or smartphone which has internet connection, or in case there is no Wi-Fi nearby, they can read the downloaded version of the paper. Thus, subscribers can keep up with the current news and carry their favorite newspaper with them even if they have to go away for a while. Downloading the online journal in a smartphone during a break or a meal is much easier and more comfortable than carrying a paper around. Everybody likes convenient solutions, and the digitized newspaper is definitely one.
      Last but not least, online news pages have one more unbeatable advantage compared to newspapers. It often happens that a news article refers to a former event or a related occurrence, or that someone encounters a piece of news which is the sequel of a former event which they have not heard or read about. When it happens to someone reading a print newspaper, they have to orient themselves from another source, or look up the previous newspaper to get to know the antecedents. In contrast, online journals can embed a link to the related concept, or offer the related, previous articles at the end of the text. This feature also makes digital papers more effective than print newspapers.

      By conclusion, online news pages offer continuous information flow, easy access at any place, and a more extensive report on a particular news item than their printed counterparts. Simply saying, it is easy to diagnose that digital papers are more convenient than print papers, and this feature is a greatly needed demand of the busy and always on the move people of the 21st century.

No comments:

Post a Comment