The dawning of the Multimediast

What's black and white and completely over? Give up? It's newspapers.
-Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

While many websites like newspaperdeathwatch.com have propped up to chronicle the "death" of the newspaper industry, I begin this blog on a much more optimistic note: to chronicle the successes of newspapers across the country--at the same time trying to understand why the papers that are still in production have succeeded and why those that aren't, failed. I also intend on documenting my own quest to become a 21st century journalist, ready to embrace the ever advancing technology at my fingertips and to celebrate the many dimensions that multimedia has brought to the realm of journalism.

Watching this episode of The Daily Show, which aired last year shortly after the Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy, I couldn't help but break out into a fit of laughter-- all while thinking, "He didn't just say that," and then laughing some more. It's a good joke, but as my mom pointed out, it didn't really warrant my reaction. The laughter, of course, was a defense mechanism used to soften the jab dealt to a field which I have long admired and sought to be a part of. So I laughed it off, pretended it didn't bother me--until I was up late the next night thinking about the future, in particular, my future.

I had long romanticized the idea of becoming a journalist in thanks to Oriana Fallaci, fictional characters like Lois Lane and Peter Parker and movies like The Great Race, Citizen Kane, and It Happened One Night. Maybe I'd be swept off my feet by a Superman while sitting comfortably in my cubicle at the Daily Planet, or I'd become a masked superhero that exposed every villain's dirty secret. Or, maybe, I'd monopolize the entire industry (insert diabolical laughter here). Maybe I'd spit in the faces of world leaders and destroy them with my pen. I'd write exposé pieces about injustices around the world and win a Pulitzer Prize. If you're gonna dream, might as well dream big, right?

But, on that night in December the reality began to set in. As, Jon Stewart suggested, the newspaper is over. At least that's what many people, both spectators and those in the industry, seem to believe. I beg to differ. See, I LOVE the paper. I like that my fingers get dirty. It isn't enough for me to read blurbs online; I need something that I can grasp.

So, I seek, for my own sanity, to answer the question once and for all: will the news go paperless? I come to this with an open mind, willing to learn, and willing to change my mind if at anytime I feel that I am wrong.