Online Reporting

I thrive on getting information fast.  I hate having to flip through the pages of a book or newspaper to find a jump.  I like being able to type in a keyword and have millions of articles/websites show up as a relavent search result.  However, the fact that newspapers are slowly starting to disappear is odd to me.

I talked to my dad about this during spring break.  Rather than spending my time on a beach, I spent my spring break searching for a summer internship.  I was interested in finding one that merged public relations and journalism.  This way, I would have experience in a field that wasn't becoming so hit or miss.  (Sad, I know.)

Anyway, the main thing my dad said was that he didn't quite understand why people were so fascinated with reading the news online.  I tried to explain how important speed is to everyone now, and he still thought it was pointless.  He brought up the fact that he is a commuter, and enjoys reading the paper on the train.  He feels bad for the people that have to squint at their Blackberry's and struggle with the small thumbpads.  

Those were good points.  I hadn't thought of many of those things.  He brought up the importance of the material object, holding it, flipping through it, running into articles you might not expect to, etc.  My need for speed slowly began to drift away after that conversation.  I can't imagine printing out pictures online and sending it to family members because they were pictured in some article.  Cutting it out of a paper gives you a totally different feeling.  To me, it makes it more meaningful.  Anyone can post pictures on the Internet, but not everyone can be pictured in a newspaper.  It's exciting when something like this happens.  

I'm crossing my fingers with hopes that the economy will turn and bring papers back, regardless of how important speed may be to the general population.