The Future, In Print with Howard Barrell
Howard Barrell, senior lecturer, Cardiff School of journalism, speaks to Pallavee Dhaundiyal-Panthry about the changing landscape of print journalism.
Before joining Cardiff University, Howard Barrell worked as ajournalist for 23 years, with various organisations in the UK and Southern Africa, including names like the Financial Times, The Guardian and Daily Mail.
How has print journalism changed over the past decade?
Print media is changing rapidly and the outcome, even in the medium-term, is difficult to predict with any accuracy. The changes in two factors are responsible for developments that are underway - technology and the marketplace.
New technologies, and their widespread affordability, have unleashed pontentialities that are fundamentally changing the relationship between the electronic media - internet, radio and television - and their audiences. Millions of people can now watch news events unfold televisually in real time ie. as they happen, and even use mobile devices to participate in the programmes by 'phoning-in' or providing photo/video footage.
In societies where these technology-driven changes are more advanced, as in the West, there is a trend decline in newspaper readership and sales, primarily because the young are more familiar and comfortable with internet-based and other media.
Yet thisdeclinein newspapers' sources of revenue - sales and advertising - is slowest among the highest quality of printt publications, indicating that there remains a relatively strong demand for news analysis from newspaper brands famed for their reliability and intelligence. The dilemma faced by the lower end of the newspaper market ie. tabloids, is selling the kind of news they produce, when readers are getting it free on the internet, radio and TV.
In other parts of the world, however, print appears to be thriving alongside the electronic media, particularly in India and China. The high rates of economic growth and ongoing development of huge domestic markets have meant both expansion in demand for news and growth in advertising.
Elsewhere, in low growth developing countries, like in Africa, radio is the king, as it incures the lowest cost and requires lower literacy levels than print, which is confined to more educated, wealthier consumers whose growth as a class is very limited.
What is the current scope in print journalism as a creer?
Print journalism is the best training any journalist can get. Though radio and television require someone to develop special skills, these skills are secondary to the basic skills of journalism viz being able to tell a complex story accurately and in a way that is simple, clear and accessible so that the significant facts are made interesting.
But the more substantial incentive to remain in print is the internet and the proliferation of news websites that have sprung up, some of them developed by high quality news organisations and brands.
What does the future hold for journalism in print?
One term that sums up the future of all media platforms is 'convergence'. In the future very few jounalists will be writing for just one news platform, and their work will be used across newspapers, websites, several radio stations, a few TV stations, mobile phone news networks, and any other platform invented between now and then.
Producing news almost simultaneously for all these different platforms will confront journalists with new challenges. There will be a lot of 'repurposing' as there already is in some news organisations, wherein news originally intended for one platform is edited into a form to suit another. This will mean no shortage of work for journalists with the precision required to work with words on paper or in cyberspace.
