This week in class, we were asked to look at a news story from the position of both a print and an online news source. A story that has been all over the media this week is the brutal slaying of Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother, and nephew. For those of you not familiar with this current story, while promoting her first album and new movie "The Secret Life of Bees," the singer/actress received news that her mother, 57-year-old Darnell Donerson, and brother, 29-year-old Jason Hudson, were found dead in their Chicago home due to gunshot wounds. Hudson also got the news on Sunday that her 7-year-old nephew Julian was missing. Hudson offered a $100,000 reward for his safe return, but the boy's body was later discovered in an abandoned car parked nearby the house. The person in question is William Balfour, the 27-year-old stepfather of Hudson's nephew. Balfour swears his innocence; however, he refused a lie detector test. Today (10/30/2008), the weapon used in the murder was discovered in bushes nearby the abandoned car.
The print article that I read about this story in was from today's issue of USA Today in the "Life" section. It was titled "Hudson's tragic loss will take time to heal," and was written by Kelley L. Carter. The article mainly focused on Jennifer Hudson and how she was expected to cope with this tragedy. Hudson has not publicly commented on it, so therefore the article focused on speculation of when and where it will happen. The author seems to think Hudson will go on Oprah to discuss the tragedy. It says, "Oprah is the logical place to go. It's safe to cry on the sofa. Talking to Oprah is like talking to your best friend who’s also a therapist. And everyone watches it. It will be couched as a tribute to her family and not a rehash of the murder."
The online article pertaining to this story had noticeably different content from the print source. The article titled, "Gun 'used to murder Jennifer Hudson's family' found" was also written today, and I found it on the UK Telegraph's website. Instead of speculating about Jennifer's reaction to the murder, it's author Sarah Brealey takes a more objective approach, stating the known facts in the case and the latest developments. I preferred this article because I had only recently heard of the news of a murder in Jennifer Hudson's family, but I didn't know much about it. I read the print article first and still didn't know anything about the case, not even who was murdered. It was through the online article that I became familiar with the details of the case.
Online news differs from print in that it gives the public the benefit of many, diverse news sources, making it easy to find the information you're looking for. In print, your options are limited unless you are willing to spend the money to buy a number of different newspapers. Using this current example, I was not very interested in finding out Jennifer's reaction to the murder because I had yet to even know who was murdered. Online, it was really easy to look up the information that I was interested in, and I found a relevant article in a matter of seconds (and it was free).
Another advantage to online new sources is they have the ability to release the latest news as it unfolds, compared to print where they have to wait to release it until the next day. In this example, when the print article was written, news had not yet broken that the gun was found and therefore, this information was not included in the article. It was, however, included in the online article. Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post says, "News happens every second of the day -- it doesn't stop after the next day's newspaper is put to bed -- and blogs and Internet news sites are clearly better equipped to keep up with this never-ending news cycle."
Due to its many benefits, online news has seen a great increase in recent years. According to the Pew Internet survey on online news published in 2006, "By the end of 2005, 50 million Americans got news online on a typical day, a sizable increase since 2002." It is because of this increase that print sources are taking a hit. The Washington Post is a prime example of this. Donald Graham, CEO of the company said that the Washington post "lost 3% of its paid readers, 4% of its ad revenue and 14% of its classified recruitment revenues; both ad revenue measures fell almost twice as steeply in the fourth quarter, indicating more losses are on the way. 2006 has been a poor year for every newspaper I know of.” On the other hand, the company’s website, Washingtonpost.com, has shown great success probably because it offers much more than just current news. "A quick visit to washigntonpost.com can lead to hours of clicking. Viewers can read all the articles from the print edition, of course, but that's just a start. You can chat online with reporters, watch award-winning documentaries or see the cherry blossoms bloom with time-elapsed photography (Web vs. Print)."
The Washington Post is not alone, many other news sources are facing the problem of how will they keep their print sources alive. The answer to this question is uncertain, but it seems that print sources will have to change the way they market themselves in order to compete with the exciting new world of the internet. Although in the past, people were content receiving their news from a simple black and white paper sent to their house each morning, today people need much more than that. Print sources will have a hard time in the future meeting the task of accommodating to people’s ever shrinking attention spans.
Sources
(4 April 2007). Web vs. Print: Online Successes at One Newspaper Raise More Questions Than They Answer. Retrieved 30 October, 2008, from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania Web site: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1699
Brealey, S. (30 October 2008). Gun 'used to murder Jennifer Hudson's family' found. Retrieved 30 October, 2008, from UK's Telegraph Web site: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/3284853/Gun-used-to-murder-Jennifer-Hudsons-family-found.html
Carter, K. (30 October 2008). Hudson's tragic loss will take time to heal. USA Today. p. 3D
Horrigan, J. (22 March 2006). Online News: For many home broadband users, the internet is a primary news source. Retrieved 30 October, 2008, from Pew Internet Web site:
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/178/report_display.asp
Huffington, A. (7 July 2005). Online vs. Print: A Front Page Pic Tells the Whole Story. Retrieved 30 October, 2008, from The Huffington Post Web site: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/online-vs-print-a-fron_b_3797.html
5 comments:
I noticed we chose the same story for the journalism assignment..I guess great minds think alike! lolz
I am a fan of Jennifer Hudson so my heart goes out to her and her whole family as they get through this unfortunate experience. The news as been covering this story alot since first hearings of the 2 murders last week. I think it will continue to receive media attention until the person responsible for the murders is officially convicted and trialed.
I could not believe this story when I saw it. I can not image being in her shoes right now and how devastated she must be to lose almost all of her family so suddenly. I wonder if this wouldn't have happened if she wasn't constantly in the media's spotlight since her time on on American Idol.
This is a terrible event, but the way you dissected the differences between the two mediums is really well done.
I agree with the idea that print is so much different than online sources. The idea that people can change and edit their work so much faster and easier in online texts makes it an unfair competition for journalists.
I think that journalism is just moving to a new forum. Journalists are adopting this new communication medium relatively quickly, it seems to me. For many, it's a very helpful tool; many journalists are very involved online and have their own blogs and Twitter accounts. I know some journalists who have embraced Twitter as a critical resource for getting information for their upcoming stories. Also, when reporters are looking for story ideas, many post 'tweets' looking for some hints from the public and PR professionals. The internet is a huge information source, and makes things easier for reporters in a lot of ways. Of course, traditional journalism will still exist in print forms for years to come, but it seems to be moving to the web at a very quick pace.
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