For the longest time, journalism has been done through printed papers, television  and radio but recently, the majority of people are able to access the internet and have been accesing their information online. This has caused fewer people to utilize old media and instead they  use new media.  Plus, because of how horrible the economy currently is, many old media companies are able to stay above water and are facing bankrupcy! PC Magazine for example, has shut down their print magazine completly and has moved to being a fully online publication. The main problem is that people don’t want to pay for print media, when they could simple subscribe to a free RSS feed and read online at their convience.

The other great part of new media is the fact that anyone with a computer can create media that can be published and read by anyone. This allows everyone to express themselves and be their own reporters. You can report on any topics you like and work independantly  instead of working for a major media company and still have many people viewing your media. This not only helps people’s opinions be heard but, this also allows the viewers to pick from many journalists and then view the one they enjoy the most.

This blog is a great example of the power of new media, I write about anythin I think I can write a high-quality article about and don’t focus on a specific topic and I get people that come and read what I write. New media also helps teach tyhe creator many things, like how to run a website and how to write well and this helps them learn a lot more than if they were just viewing old media because this helps them express themselves and also build high-quality results when people search their names online.

A few days ago, PC Magazine announced that they will no longer produce a printed magazines. I believe that this is for the best and that many other print media companies will do the same. The fact is, that printed media is not worth the effort when people can release internet media like blogs for much less money.

Print media requires so much overhead between the printing costs, shipping costs, cost of buying supplies to print on! All those fees are not needed with online media all you need to do is buy web hosting and pay people to write content and manage the website. That is a major savings and allows anyone (even me) to become a journalist in their own right. In hard economic times like now where money is tight and many companies are on the verge of bankruptcy,  it could save the businesses a lot of money by going web only and eliminating their print operation.

As for the consumer, the biggest advantage is that most online media outlets don’t require you to pay anything, online media relies mainly on advertisement for revenue. In addition, online media lets you read the news anywhere and does not require you to have to hold the media in your own hands. Plus there is no need to have to store or dispose of it because it is all hosted on the internet and you can just close the webpage!

In conclusion, online media is both more cost-effective for the producer and the consumer and is easier to be read. Print media requires too much overhead and unnecessary things that can be avoided by moving to all online media.  I believe that especially now in these tough economic times, many media producers will move to online and do away with the unnecessary print media