Over the past few months, we have seen many newspapers shut their doors. Even the Boston Globe's existence is being threatened. There seems to be two basic factors contributing to the loss of printed newspapers, an ailing economy and the lack of newspapers to do what they were supposed to do over the past ten years.
Newspapers were supposed to go out and ask the tough questions. Where was Brenda Starr reporter when the financial institutions were putting together unsound mortgage instruments and selling them overseas. No where. But truth has the habit of coming to the surface and along came the blogg. An unusual word -- short, guttural and powerful because bloggs empower people to say what is on their mind, give their opinion often and invite others to do likewise.
Bloggers exploded the power of the Internet by allowing information to be shared instantly on a global level. People relish the power to have their say, network, mobilize, digg a story up or bury it deep. Tweets and twirls came along and took the world by surprise. There was a time when I would sit with my colleagues and joke about how the birthing of a new language was taking place with the text message craze. We laughed just as we did when we mused about someone crazy enough to bottle water and sell it.
Tomorrow, I plan to go to the movies to see State of Play, starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren and a host of other great actors/actresses. The story is about a team of investigative reporters (including a young blogger) who work together with a police detective to try and solve the murder of a congressman's mistress. I watched Affleck on the Rachel Maddow show this evening and quietly giggled as they mused over one day perhaps Ben may tell his children how news stories were actually printed on paper and then delivered to homes/individuals, one by one -- in the old days. Maddow and Affleck discussed the failing newspaper industry and what impact that might have to the future of news reporting.
Should we do away with newspapers? Will that save a lot of trees? Or, should we find a way to live in harmony, bloggers and reporters (on recycled paper)?
After the show, I logged onto Face Book to check out what was happening in the online world. And there it was on Face Book -- a trailer for the movie, State of Play, with a link to the web site and all. When one opens and watches the trailer, you can opt to share it on various Internet social networks and blogs -- including this blogg. Watch the movie trailer posted on the right.
I still like sitting in my yard on a beautiful spring morning with coffee in hand tackling a good crossword puzzle, or snuggled up in my favorite chair with a good book on a cold rainy day. I love walking through the long rows of books at the main library. Most of all, the New York Public Library main branch, sitting at the mahogany desks, worn from decades of use, the smell of books, the awe of the words that rests on each page, the adventures locked in each chapter, waiting to emerge and burst into action upon the unsuspecting reader.
Blogging allows us to have a global conversation, meet new people, share ideas and forces us to hear, see and tell our stories in a fast-paced manner commensurate with the fast-paced world we live in. Blogging is an outward motion and an empowering action for both the blogger and the reader. Newspapers, books and magazines allow us to have an inner conversation, expand our imagination, explore our own minds in the comfort of our own zone. It is a perfect, permissible conversation with oneself.
Each has a special place in today's world and in our hearts. We need them both.
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