Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable
“When a 14 year old kid can blow up your business in his spare time, not because he hates you but because he loves you, then you got a problem.” (Gordy Thompson, idem)
Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. For a century, the imperatives to strengthen journalism and to strengthen newspapers have been so tightly wound as to be indistinguishable. That’s been a fine accident to have, but when that accident stops, as it is stopping before our eyes, we’re going to need lots of other ways to strengthen journalism instead.
When we shift our attention from ’save newspapers’ to ’save society’, the imperative changes from ‘preserve the current institutions’ to ‘do whatever works.’ And what works today isn’t the same as what used to work.
This was a very well written, fascinating article on the death of newspapers. It’s a joy to be exposed to clear thinking people.
Source: lsotd
