Print Media

Many news media personnel have voiced their opinion regarding the current state of print media, creating a cloud of hysteria which makes it difficult for one to truly understand whether hardcopy news if in fact it is in a decline or remains a stable platform for the circulation of information. It is hard to deny the recent rise in online media generally, namely online giants like Facebook and Netflix, though is important to note the similarities and distinctions that lie between these entertainment media services and news media providers in response to its relationship to current media trends, including the state of print media within Australia. Multiple factors lead to the decline of print media within the country, which this essay plans to discuss, detailing why print media has fallen over recent times whilst providing examples and analysis throughout.

Media users are becoming more dynamic than ever, gone are the days where media is spoon fed to consumers and it is their responsibility to consume media that interests them and ignore media that ceased to amuse them, there is no denying this a laborious process that is redundant in today's media landscape. The hypodermic needle theory coined through events like Orson Welles War of The Worlds explains this theory, where media is shot directly at audiences and they passively accept what is presented to them, however that theory is invalid in today's dynamic media world.

Print media has been negatively effected through the rise in user awareness and interaction in their media consumption as other news sources are more accessible and specific to their wants and needs as media people, with over 45% of individuals aged between 14-32 primarily receiving news from social media platforms (Deloitte 2016). It is hard to deny the correlation between the rise in accessibility of news information through prominent smartphone applications like Facebook and Reddit (66% and 70% respectively) which is more tailored to the tendencies of users than ever before, and the general longwinded nature of print media, particularly newspapers, it is absurd to think someone would buy a newspaper to a mere read 5 pages when they can see use Facebook to access news specific to them. Furthermore, online news technologies render print news outdated given online news can penetrate its audience immediately, whilst print media is forced to wait for its next edition to be printed in order to be accessed by audiences, the timeliness factor another reason for the rise in online news, and the consequential decline in traditional printed news.