Bogged down in blogging

Newspaper is apparently going the way of the dodo, and I understand the irony that you’re most likely reading this column in that medium.

Among the tales of our economic recession has been the decline of newspaper sales. As it is now, journalists seem to be reacting in two ways: complete and utter denial or frantic debate over how to keep the ship from sinking.

Magazines are also suffering from lower subscriptions, and the empty coffee tables of the world are weeping.

The people behind the decline of print journalism? Those damn bloggers.

Forget MP3s and leaked movies. The real culprits of stolen content target journalists’ work. News companies are losing customers, site traffic and funds when their stories are linked a thousand times in the blogosphere.

Some blogs do create their own content, but the nature of many news blogs is to just rehash and copy the content from the original source. This isn’t illegal, but it’s a practice that’s gotten out of hand. Everyone with an Internet connection and a WordPress account sees him- or herself as the next Anderson Cooper.

With so much replicated content, the Internet is actually becoming harder to sift through to find unique information. To find relevant news stories, you have to dodge search engine results. For every news story about President Barack Obama’s latest speech, there are a thousand personal blog entries about it.

Independent blogs are, in essence, personal opinion pages. Imagine if the Indiana Daily Student Opinion page were not confined to these few pages and the majority of our content were presented through an individual’s viewpoint.

This is an awkward transition period because many don’t see blogs as valid enough to check their sources, but we’re getting a lot of information from them. With no way to validate everything, too much content is flying around as fact.

In their attempts to adapt to the new media, cable news has tried to incorporate Twitter updates, blog comments and e-mails into their news shows. CNN News Team, explain to me how the opinion of Random Lady #57 from Arkansas should dominate my news coverage?

I feel a bit bad writing about this. I’m casually addressing a problem from the sidelines while most of my peers at the IDS will have to deal with this in the next few years. However, it’s not all biscuits and gravy for telecommunications majors like myself, either.

How am I supposed to get paid for making an epic film when people are just as satisfied with free content on YouTube? In these industries, the massive amount of supply is driving the price down. Every time you watch one of those amateur anime videos edited together with Linkin Park music, you’re hurting the American economy.

If professional journalists can show their value through consistency and solid original material, they will survive.

Newspaper will hopefully still find a niche as most forms of outdated media have.

Besides, it’s extremely inconvenient to bring your laptop into the bathroom as reading material. Trust me, I’ve tried.

Disagree with me? Comment on my blog.