Tablet News VS Print

Chris Trotter’s article titled “Ipad-Only NewspaperFurthers Media Trend” has provoked my curiosity to further venture into this idea.

Change is inevitable for media organizations and resistance of change will only throw these unwilling organizations into the deeper end as Gen Y increases in population, so does the popularity of reading news from tablets. 


Firstly, an example of print newspaper and  a tablet newspaper.

Print Newspaper

Source: http://www.eldergadget.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Samsung-Tablet-Newspaper.jpg

Tablet Newspaper

Source: http://seethesite.name/kindle2/newspapers

What do most audiences say about this switch in genre?

In Technolog on MSNBC.com, Pew Research Centre provided the following statistics:

• “28% of American say the loss of local newspaper would cause major impact on the ability to keep up with local information.”
• “30% say it would have a minor impact.”
• “39% say the loss of the newspaper would have no impact”

Rosensteil &Mitchell (2011) from the Pew Research Centre’s Project for Excellence in Journalism noted a survey done showing:

• “47% of Americans  now get news from local mobile devices or tablets”
• “Cable news is shrinking especially in its median audience”

Local newspapers have degraded in providing information because the audiences now are demanding for correct, sufficient yet fast information. News happening  and being reported straight at the moment is new, any news a few hours later is considered old news in its media life. Newspapers take longer processing time which decreases its favorability.

As of January 2011, Internet is now second to Television when it comes to weather reports, breaking news, and traffic updates. 

Source: http://www.frankwbaker.com/mediau9.jpg

Source: http://www.frankwbaker.com/w-pew296--300x416--300x416.jpg

The younger the viewers are, the more welcoming the internet era is, which leads to more tablet viewing. Local news and information sources are mostly dominated by the internet, both reading through tablets or desktops. 

Source: http://www.frankwbaker.com/mediau10.jpg

According to Klein (2011) print fulfills a different need, readers want the experience of holding and flipping through pages which provides both intellectual and leisure experiences, which may not be found in digital devices. 

I however, feel that digital devices provide easier accessibility. Walsh (2006) expresses the importance of how technological differences assist readers and maintains a reader’s interest. The easier accessibility to other references from hyperlinks within the tablet news, links to various other media tools increases the chances of in-depth understanding as compared to reading plainly from printed newspapers.

My Opinion

I believe that it is important to find a balance point between both print and tablet because both mediums satisfy different needs of different readers, and both mediums should be allowed to co-exist together. 

Reference List:

Klein, JE 2011, Print Newspapers Have a Place in a Tablet Heavy Future, NiemanLab, viewed 11 November 2011, < http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/02/jason-e-klein-print-newspapers-have-a-place-in-a-tablet-heavy-future/>

Rosensteil, T & Mitchell, A 2011, The State of The News Media- An Annual Report on American Journalism, State of the Media. Org, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://stateofthemedia.org/2011/overview-2/>

Choney, S 2011, Online News Readership Overtakes Newspapers, Technolog on MSNBC.com, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/14/6267015-online-news-readership-overtakes-newspapers>

Trotter, C  Ipad-Only  Newspaper Furthers Media Trend, The Cento, viewed 11 November 2011, <http://www.thecento.com/news/2011/feb/17/ipad-only-newspaper-furthers-media-trend/>

Walsh, M 2006, ‘Textual Shift’- Examining the Reading Process with Print, Visual and Multimodal Texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 29, No.1, pp.24-37.