Tuesday, September 14, 2010

'Good journalism remains timeless'

Dawn Osakue on Editorsweblog.org writes, "Whenever technology advances, there are fears that new inventions will take over the old. The death of the newspaper has been discussed for some time, as the web becomes more popular, and now the death of the web has been announced as apps become more common. However, John Naughton [of the Guardian], has reminded [us] that 'good journalism will thrive, whatever the format'."

Indeed, Naughton argues that predicting Internet trends is futile: "The problem with endism is that it's intrinsically simplistic," he says. "Of course, new technologies threaten some older things ... but the demand for reference information hasn't disappeared.

"Print is just one way of publishing the fruits of journalists' labours," he adds. "The web is another; iPhone apps are a third. And there may be more to come as the internet continues to work its disruptive magic."