Waste of Space, and Trees!
“Every single journalism class at NYU has required me to bring the bulky newspaper. I don’t understand why they don’t let us access the online version, get our current events news from other outlets, or even use our NYTimes app on the iPhone. Bringing the New York Times pains me because I refuse to believe that it’s the only source for credible news or Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism and it’s a big waste of trees.”
—Alana Taylor, student journalist, 2008
Editorial Comment: And this dumb Moby Dick! It's like a whale! Can't I bring my Kindle?
News Note: “The Boston Globe and its largest employees union reached a tentative agreement early Wednesday morning on concessions that will keep the 137-year-old newspaper publishing, the union president said.”--Associated Press 5/6/09
RoxyWatch: Imprisoned U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi halted her hunger strike Monday, her father reports, after she was moved to the prison hospital in Iran. The 32-year-old journalist's appeal of her eight-year prison sentence for espionage is scheduled for next week..
They make journalism students carry around newspapers!?!?!!! Jeesh!
ReplyDeleteAhhh, don't get me started. If they *read* more newspapers, I'd be happier....another J Prof...Deb Woodell, Rowan University
ReplyDeleteAmen, Deb. Paper, web, TacoBell coupons.... Do they read *anything*? Sometimes I wonder.
ReplyDeleteTed
Dear Alana,
ReplyDeleteClearly, you are a model "information consumer" for the 21st century! I'm not sure, however, why you are studying journalism, which requires
the will and desire to pursue and mine all avenues of information, regardless of how inconvenient. A Cliff Notes or Reader's Digest
version of "War and Peace" can't quite convey the scope, breadth, texture, and impact of the actual novel; nor can two paragraphs or sound-bite summaries of vital news stories and in-depth feature articles convey the scope, breadth, texture, and impact of a newspaperful of news and information from around the world. It's a
bit like skimming a travel guide (even a very good one), and equating it with the actual experience of traveling through another country.
Sorry about the prevalence of the New York Times. There are, in every field, those that persistently do their jobs with such dependable
excellence or satisfaction that they set the bar for others. (Should I mention Google, Facebook, or Twitter at this time?)
Fear not, Alana. Soon there will be no other choice but to receive news electronically, and you won't have to worry about being distracted by all those other worthy stories and reviews. You'll be able to just skim the top of everything. And instead of wasting time
discussing the latest news developments, you can simply tweet your friends that you just 'read' the news in under two minutes. I see a
promising career ahead of you, if not in graphic design for the web or iPhone app development, then perhaps in advocacy -- perhaps you could
marshall public opinion and government mandate to ban catalog and junk mail printing and mailing. Now those culprits really do waste trees.
Cheers,
A modern-day Luddite