I was absolutely appalled when I received the latest issue of the Daily Forty-Niner with news about the possible death of the print edition. We have been discussing in my Journalism 110 class whether or not print journalism will one day cease to exist, and it sickened me to hear how many of my classmates didn’t care about the situation.
I came to CSULB because I knew this campus had a focus on print journalism, which is what I’m planning on pursuing as my major. I am angered that the staff has put so much time and effort into having their work read and displayed to the masses, yet it’s all being taken away by somebody who doesn’t even relate to this field.
Why is it that we can focus on plenty of other colleges and majors on this campus, while others are merely pushed aside? Where is the justice in that? I left high school feeling a bit relieved, knowing that if I wanted to get my point across, things wouldn’t have to be censored half as much.
In a way, this is censorship, because it’s blocking out all those readers who do not use the Internet as frequently and, quite frankly, wouldn’t read it otherwise. Journalists in the making don’t just write so they can see their work on a screen. Anybody could do that with blogs,nowadays.
It’s a great feeling to have your work physically in your hand and know that somebody else read those words. The only way that print journalism can die is if we kill it.
– Amaryllis Velasco, freshman journalism major
The dean is right, you definitely need to put video and audio feeds on to your site. That’s the future of journalism – convergence.
I’ve met former editors who have been dropped from their papers in favor of younger reporters who have those types of multimedia skills. Convergence is the future.
However, the word is convergence – not online only. Print has its place, like for students who want something to read in between classes. There’s just no way to replace the benefits of a print edition.
To get rid of a print edition or to cut it back too drastically would be, in my opinion, a naive mistake by a dean who may not know the necessities of journalism.
– Brian McKenna, Cypress Community College
