Page 13 - ARUBA TODAY

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Thursday 27 June 2019

Hip hip hooray for newspapers

By Melissa martin Ph.D Kriston Capps in a 2018 in- calize your opinion by writ-
OHIO — “For the times they ternet article at City Lab. ing a Letter to the Editor.
are a-changing’” sang Bob Take some time out of your
Dylan. And the digital age As advertising revenue has hurry-scurry day and com-
has changed the way in- been gobbled up by the municate with your news-
formation is eaten, swal- Internet giants Facebook paper people. They need to
lowed, and digested. We and Google, newspaper know you care.
can’t stop progress, but we profits have plunged. The Melissa Martin, Ph.D.,
must maintain the salience World Wide Web is here to What else can you do? Pay is an author, columnist,
of our newspapers (in print stay, but humans around for a subscription to your lo- educator, and therapist.
or digital). Why? News- the globe need to stand cal newspaper (print or digi- She lives in US
papers, whether country, up for newspapers. tal).
state, or local serve signifi- The staff and their families
cant roles in societies and The School of Media and need to eat at least once a newspaper-in-education cal newspapers, whether
cultures. And residents like Journalism at the Univer- day. programs. in print or digital.
hometown news. sity of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill has collected, Use newspaper content as Local businesses need to “He who is without a news-
“Print newspapers are suf- researched and analyzed a teaching tool in schools. continue spending their paper is cut off from his
fering declining readership data from 2004 to 2016 Communities need strong advertising dollars with lo- species.”— P. T. Barnumq
and revenue in most of on more than 9,500 local
the developed world, such newspapers in the United
as in Europe and Austra- States. The comprehensive
lia, though in general the study of newspaper cov-
problems are not as severe erage found that 516 ru-
as in the United States, par- ral newspapers closed or
ticularly when it comes to merged from 2004 to 2018.
revenue. But in much of
the developing world, print In metropolitan areas, 1,294
newspapers are thriving, in newspapers were shut-
some cases dramatically,” tered. A national total of
according to a 2011 report 1,810 papers that ceased
from the Pew Research publication. Read the 88-
Center with information page report “The Rise of a
gleaned from the World New Media Baron and the
Association of Newspapers Emerging Threat of News
2010 and 2009 World Press Deserts” at www.usnews-
Trends reports. deserts.com.

In Africa circulation in 2009 I recently attended the an-
rose across the continent nual conference for mem-
by 5 percent. As India’s lit- bers of the National Society
eracy rate grows, so does of Newspaper Columnists,
its newspaper circulation. a 501(c)6 nonprofit organi-
Countries with evolving de- zation in the USA.
mocracies show newspa-
per growth (Hungary, Rus- The NSNC promotes profes-
sia, Kosovo, Russia, and Af- sionalism and camaraderie
ghanistan). Asia is home to among columnists and oth-
67 of the 100 largest news- er writers of the serial essay,
papers in the world. www. including bloggers. And
journalism.org. advocates for columnists
and free-press issues.
“When local newspapers
shut their doors, communi- Don’t close the casket and
ties lose out. People and bury local newspapers! Ye
their stories can’t find cov- naysayers of doom and
erage. gloom—readers want,
need, and love their home-
Politicos take liberties when town newspapers. I urge
it’s nobody’s job to hold readers of their local news-
them accountable. What paper (in print or digital) to
the public doesn’t know write a letter of support to
winds up hurting them. The the newspaper staff.
city feels poorer, politically
and culturally,” penned Dust off your duff and vo-