by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: August 10, 2009

Print and online journalism are now at a crossroad and the two are in the process of deciding how each can enhance the other. The future of journalism is now being and the old argument of which one is best no longer applies. Both are necessary and neither is expected to go away. Simply because it took news longer to get places a century ago does not mean it was any more truthful or more worthy than it is now. The newspaper, by the time it arrived at its destination was often tattered and torn and parts of it were unreadable.

Compare that now to the lightening speed news is heard around the world and we see that speed of the news is not necessarily more truthful than it was then. It still gets to us today tattered and torn. More people working on the same topic often so confuses and weakens it that, in effect, it may be no more viable than when it arrived on a slower journey. Maybe. There are other considerations equally worth mentioning. Today, it known sooner and by more people and that has to add points in its defense. Response time is quicker and there are more people editing and rejecting and passing on the news now than then and that too is a plus. All in all, most internet users will readily agree that internet news is far ahead of print journalism. Immediacy makes it a winner.

Not so fast, say historians. Where would we be today if it were not for print journalism? What about the invention of the printing press that changed the course of history simply by letting more people in on what went on before?
The printing press escalated the written word and made it available to the public. In essence, it gathered in the hand written copies of important documents and duplicated them and made them available. With that distances became closer; in thought at least. The west learned of China and China learned of the west. They are still learning but both are doing it faster and easier via the Internet.

How then does Guttenberg's printing press compare to the internet. Both drastically changed the course of journalism. Even with these long delivery time distances separating the two media they are close together in spirit. What would fill the many archives and online bins and gathering places were it not for the many volumes printed? They would not be the well equipped online libraries that we can all dip into at will and learn facts it once took us days or months to acquire.

When we consider that the purpose of journalism is to get the news out as quickly and as accurately as possible, nothing has changed. Today instead of Paul Revere jumping on his horse and running with the news of the shot heard around the world' - at the beginning of the Revolutionary War - we have news flashes on television and internet sites exploding with equally frightening and threatening news. So, while we compare and make comments about differences about news print journalism and internet journalism, the only difference is in its delivery system, which has nothing to do with the quality of the two.

Learn more about this author, Effie Moore Salem.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.