Jake’s Weblog

Mass Media in its current state is highly dependant on electronic forms of media to convey its points.  Right now, we are in a transition state between the traditional forms of media, things like magazines and newspapers, and even television, and moving towards an increasingly electronic field of information.  Newspapers are being replaced with blogs of uninformed, often amateur, self-proclaimed reporters.  In addition, the newspapers and magazines of America are increasingly transferring to an electronic format themselves.  The question is whether they themselves will survive the test of time in the long run; though I think that more people will trust a name like “The New York Times” over a random blog, there is also a general trend of increasing apathy amongst the new generation which ultimately may lead to a decrease in the news industry as a whole.  I hope that it never reaches such a point, but it’s certainly possible.  What I really find disturbing, however, is that some of these massive RPGs like World of Warcraft and such are actually generating virtual economies and that people are becoming rich off them.  Furthermore, people are making new “games” where supposedly people can go to a virtual store and buy real products.  I’ve seen and heard some really stupid things before, but this tops them all.  We need to draw the line somewhere. Overall, I think that in 10 years’ time, It would not be unreasonable to assume that the newspaper industry and print media in general will be dramaically reduced if not completely erradicated, as new technologies on the internet become more and more advanced over time.