An article in The Age (Yes, some young people still read newspapers!) on Aug. 9 called ‘Stop the Presses’ got me thinking about the future of society if newspapers do fall off the face of the Earth due to lack of funding via advertising. People are not going to pay for the news online if they can get it elsewhere on the Internet for free; that’s hardly worth contemplation. However, the article did raise a question about the future of so-called ‘public trust journalism’. This is the type of journalism where well-funded reporters keep the leaders of society in check by having access to often highly classified information, thus keeping them on their toes. This is how we’ve thus far been able to bust corrupt politicians and corporate CEO’s. The question now is, ‘If newspapers die off and no one is left to ‘interrogate’ our community leaders, what’s to keep them from doing the wrong thing, and subsequently de-threading the cloth of our current ‘stable’ (If you’d truly like to believe that it is.) civilisation?
Say goodbye to those piles of papers (and cockroaches) in the corner of your livingroom.
micontent 