Audiovox A-DUO-101-AVW User Manual download pdf (Page 74)

JOHN C. DVORAK

144 PC MAGAZINE MAY 9, 2006

Illustration by mariowagner/agoodson.com

MORE ON THE WEB

Can’t get enough

Dvorak? A new rant goes

up every Monday at

go.pcmag.com/dvorak.

You can e-mail him directly

at pcmag@dvorak.org.

HE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY IS

losing readership. So let’s

blame the Internet, right? In

fact, circulation began to de-

cline around 1970, with the

fading of the once powerful

evening newspapers. TV news

is to blame there. Circulation of

morning and Sunday papers was still increasing gradu-

ally, but according to Journalism.org’s The State of the

News Media 2004, “By 1990… even the boost from a

growing population was not enough to maintain how

many newspapers were sold each day. Circulation be-

gan dropping at the rate of 1 percent every year from

1990 to 2002.” The slide continues, and now the voice

of Silicon Valley, the once powerful San Jose Mercury

News, appears to be on the auction block.

It is hard to blame these declines, especially those

from 1970 to 1990, on the Internet. There are other

factors involved that nobody seems willing to discuss.

Syndication. Local papers have become cookie-

cutter products loaded with syndicated material, mostly

from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the

Los Angeles Times. Filling space in the San Francisco

Chronicle with New York Times articles saves money,

but many people now just get the Times instead.

The New York Times pulled off a marketing coup by

syndicating essentially the whole paper to cheapskate

publishers across the country. As columns were includ-

ed, many local columnists were fired. This whetted

the public’s appetite for the Times and created a mega-

brand; it’s one of the few growing papers in the U.S.

Boring professionalism. Joseph Pulitzer invented

the idea of the journalism school before 1900. These

institutions spread over time but didn’t really take

hold until the 1960s. By 1970, newspapers had begun

to decline. Coincidence?

A sign quoting Pulitzer, posted at the Columbia

School of Journalism as a kind of mantra, epitomizes

the problem: “Our Republic and its press will rise or fall

together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press,

with trained intelligence to know the right and courage

to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which

popular government is a sham and a mockery.”

The problem is the word “disinterested.” It’s the

hallmark of journalism today and translates to bored

and boring. Besides not giving a hoot about the story,

the disinterested observer is often hoodwinked and

subject to public-relations manipulations. Apparently,

nobody sees this as a problem.

The disappearance of the paperboy. I was a

paperboy as a kid. It was good money, and my knock-

ing on doors seeking subscriptions or asking to be paid

put a human face on the paper. Circulation grew with

the population, but now newspapers must offer free

subscriptions to sucker the rubes to renew. These offers

come from Mumbai by phone, usually when you’re at

dinner. The bean counters love it. Some middle-aged

man now delivers the paper out of an old Chevy.

No sense of humor. Today’s papers have no col-

lective sense of humor or fun. This is partly because

of the J-schools and the need to be “professional.” I

haven’t seen anyone laugh in a newsroom for decades.

This may come from political correctness, or perhaps

from some public-guardian ego trip. Maybe too many

of the people working daily news beats are just duds.

While recently perusing 1950s-era San Francisco

Examiner issues, I was shocked to ﬁ nd that the paper

was crammed with small and interesting stories, many

of which now would go into the reject folder. The

paper had real life to it then—life that is now missing.

Let’s not blame the Internet for this.

It is hard to blame declines in newspapers’ readership on

the Internet. There are other factors involved that nobody

seems willing to discuss.

YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support

1 2 ... 69 70 71 72 73 74

Comments to this Manuals

No comments

Audiovox A-DUO-101-AVW User Manual Page 74

Comments to this Manuals

Related products and manuals for Motor vehicle electronics Audiovox A-DUO-101-AVW