Abigail Allen recently wrote a column pertaining to the shutdown of the Texas A&M student newspaper. She was totally correct in her assessment that we still need university and student printed editions for many reasons. Her column can be viewed at The Texas Center for Community Journalism.
For my part, print journalism remains an important factor in the field. Pursing local news, pagination, editing and direct involvement is taught - and when the internet goes down, it remains a source of news. The Castro County News is both print and digital - and people still expect that newspaper to come in the mail or be delivered. It is an important aspect of people's lives in small communities.
The skills are learned in college and from others who have been boots on the ground for years in many cases. We have a large sector in this country who may not have access to internet or the skills to access it. Print is their mainstay. It goes into their scrapbooks and on their bulletin boards, onto the dining table with that first cup of coffee - and nothing replaces that.
But as to skills, my time spent learning journalism, writing style, layout and other aspects would have been altered had we not been learning to produce a newspaper each week (or day or bi-weekly).
While loading something that will instantly appearing after going through spell check and other programs to "fix errors", literacy and skills are being lost and being replaced by technology.
We need educated journalist with critical thinking skills who have hands on experience and do the work, lest we end up with what is destroying our communications and articulation of the news.
Print journalism has been a key factor since the days of our founding - news must remain accessible on all levels. As I said, when the internet goes down, print will be there. Hardcore journalists will find a way.
Let them learn, practice, investigate, interview and interrogate, and learn all aspects of journalism - and let them print.
“Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism…” Richard Kluger
“The newspaper is the first rough draft of history.” Philip Graham