Chapters 8 and 9

Chapter 8 starts off with this books most interesting introduction. It is about a woman named Elizabeth Cochrane, a young reporter who changed women’s role in the world of newspapers. She went undercover to expose stories on insane asylums, politicians, lobbyists and unscrupulous business practices. I think that it is so inspiring to read about women changing how things in society work. She took a part of society that was ruled by men and created a path for all women to follow. 

While reading the section Online Journalism Redefines News, I couldn’t help but think about a world without newspapers. What saddens me is that this isn’t a world that is to far way. With in a few years newspapers will be obsolete. What will this mean for the quality of the news that Americans get every day? Soon nobody is going to be reading about the stories of politics and other country, all the news is going to be about is who is having who’s baby and where she got her shoes. But then again is that so different from where the world is today? 

I found that I was able to connect with case study on page 271 really well because I am only of the many that get the free papers. Every Wednesday on my way to class I pick up a copy of the Village Voice. Although not all of the articles are very interesting some can be very entertaining. 

Chapter 9 brought me back to my childhood in the section TV Guide is Born. I can still remember when I was 7 years old and we used to buy the TV Guide. I used to flip through the magazine looking at what going to be on TV that night. Through this section I learned that the TV Guide actually had articles and didn’t just list the shows that were going to be on that night. If it wasn’t for this book and class I would have never known because when I was younger I never cared about the articles. 

After reading chapter 9, I can’t help but compare magazines and newspapers. I find it very interesting that newspapers are going to obsolete soon and I wonder when magazines will follow. I can understand that magazines are more catered to a certain demographic but when will readers just turn to their favorite webzine and throw away their old magazines? Sooner or later we will be completely dependent on computers. I can’t see that day being very far away.