I decided to write a paper on the newspaper and how it holds up against the Internet news and citizen journalism.  This is a very complex subject.  I took great pains not to trample on the idea that there was nothing the Internet could do a newspaper wouldn’t be able to do better.  I wouldn’t say that’s hard, but there are striking differences between Internet news and print news.  I found that the resources and connectivity of traditional media are far superior to independent media.  Duh.  I know that’s not terribly academic, but the truth is I found it hard to see how independent citizen media would be able to organize against traditional media’s power.

I started this research project by concentrating on the battle between newspapers and online journalism.  I found that in the course of my research, a debate over which one would survive would not be very interesting.  I feel most America readers of news and information are likely to read lots of newspapers and lots of internet news services and blogs.  I started reading quite a bit about the future of newspaper.  I was fascinated by the idea suggested by Rupert Murdoch that newspapers would continue to flourish in the future.  That let me to learn more about blogs, citizen journalism, and internet journalism.  I felt it would be unfair to pursue an argument where I suggested that internet journalism had little merit.

I looked at a lot of journalism websites that I didn’t even know existed.  I also found there were several blogs on this subject that were helpful to my understanding of the issue.  American Journalism Review and the State of the Media sites were of greatest benefit and influence.

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