Local Newspapers are Dying

Newsflash: The newspaper industry is dying. I know this isn't exactly a new development, but the fact is that to most people, newspapers are already dead.

In his latest post for the Online Journalism Review, Robert Hernandez said that white males are the ones that don't realize that newspapers are dead. This is because newspapers tell stories that relate to this demographic. Hernandez said for African American, Native American, Asian, Latinos, gays, females and those under 25 feel that newspapers are already dead. These groups believe this because they are continuously left out of their local newspaper.

Hernandez said that if local newspapers don't reflect the diversity of their community then why would they bother to read it, or even buy it?

As a journalist, it is very important to cater to your audience. If you choose not to, readers will lack confidence in your reporting. They like to read stories in which they can relate to, and if your writing doesn't reflect your audience, they will lose interest in the paper. In addition, more readers are turning to the Internet to find stories that relate to them or they have become journalists themselves.

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New Journalists Found Weekly on Twitter

Twitter and their use of the "#" symbol connects you with anyone else who is tweeting about it. The idea that journalist are now using it to connect to one another is very interesting. #Journchat is a common chat is, by definition of Robert Hernandez, an ongoing conversation between jounalist, bloggers, and PR folks. It is currently held weekly on Twitter.

People have been debated whether this is actually on journalism. There was a tweet that stated that #journchat was a bad name, but good for public relations. The idea that something with this name is just for PR, seem negative. I would think that it would be more on journalism but i guess others have disagreed.

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