The Babel Machine

Here’s an interesting analysis from Amando Doronila on the front page of the Oct. 9 edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Here’s an excerpt:

AS YOU READ this piece this morning, it has to be asked if you are reading it in a newspaper or on the Internet on a computer in front of you.

If dire predictions come true, the newspapers “in their current form will cease to exist within a decade or two.” Some say that newspapers have a “use by” label tucked to their ears, like perishable consumer commodities.

Doomsday prophecies, such as this, have filled newspapers in the wake of a cover story in The Economist magazine (Aug. 26-Sept. 1) with the head, “Who Killed the Newspaper?”

Read the rest of Doronila’s analysis. 

I already said my piece a couple of months ago on what I think about the fate of print newspapers, so check out “Wake up and smell the coffee, Dead Tree People.”

Oh, and for the record, yup, I read the article online.

UPDATE: I wrote this and then saw that fellow INQ7.net journalist and blogger Erwin Oliva also weighed in on this issue yesterday.

Here’s an excerpt from Erwin’s post:

This debate has emerged in our discussions back in my MA class in journalism at the Konrad Adenauer Center for Journalism. We’ve had heated debates on the importance of public or civic journalism in attracting back readers to newspapers or other mediums like the Internet. The same goes with citizen journalism, which is now the title given to bloggers who have become sources of information.

To say newspaper readerships are declining simply because of the Internet is too simplistic of an explanation. There are many factors at play here.

Check out Erwin’s take on this issue.