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On this Saturday morning, I read the article “The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers ” written by John Nichols & Robert W. McChesney, published in The Nation on March 18, 2009.

It raises concern on the crisis of newspapers in America which not only related to the economic meltdown but “the crisis of which we speak involves more than mere economics. Journalism is collapsing, and with it comes the most serious threat in our lifetimes to self-government and the rule of law as it has been understood here in the United States.”

It clarifies that

“Blame has been laid first and foremost on the Internet, for luring away advertisers and readers, and on the economic meltdown, which has demolished revenues and hammered debt-laden media firms. But for all the ink spilled addressing the dire circumstance of the ink-stained wretch, the understanding of what we can do about the crisis has been woefully inadequate. Unless we rethink alternatives and reforms, the media will continue to flail until journalism is all but extinguished.”

From reading this piece, I started to wonder about the possible crisis of newspapers in Thailand due to the challenges of Internet era and the political conflicts which relatively connected to the healthier democracy. You may read the full comment and recommendation suggested by two scholars from the link above.

Though, currently I am fond of Internet and reading online news most but definitely I would like to see newspapers continuing its important  role in democratic society.  So whenever I have chance I still buy few copies of newspapers from the vendors or elsewhere, just to convey my loyalty to journalism.  Journalistic works are so important, I agree that there are still the differences between the role of  journalists and the citizen journalists or bloggers as pointed.

After read the article above, it reminds me to another article I read it last year, it talked about  Arianna Huffington, the Greek-born socialite has shaken up American political media with her website the Huffington Post, published in Prospect ( www.prospect-magazine.co.uk) in August 2008, written by Andrew Keen.

The article questioned  Huffington towards her creativity of  opinion-based Huffington Post (HuffPost) website that  “by revolutionising news, might she also be in danger of destroying it?”

This kind of questions emerged more an more, Internet has changed the way things were before. It has challenged the traditional media and the way we consume information and communicate to each other. The sub-culture of Internet citizens is also intriguing.

For me, we could fight for full capacity of Internet serving basic communication’s rights but at the same time  we  should sustain the life of  newspapers.  I mean we should  uphold and protect the spirit of journalism,  for the democratic function in the country and for its own sake.

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