Newspapers: On their way to extinction?

Newspapers used to be such a crucial part of how we, as society, received our news on the current events in the world.  Over the past few years, it has been in question whether or not newspapers are going to be able to survive.  In fact, Ted Turner predicted 30 years ago that newspapers would be completely obsolete in 10 years. 

With all of the new technology that has emerged over the past few years, i.e. iPad, iPhone, it has become even more convenient just to receive our news through those devices versus having to go to the store and pick up a newspaper.  Receiving your news through these sources, as well as the internet, has allowed up to not only look at the sections of the newspaper that we want to look at, but many applications are free. 

Receiving our news through the internet is completely free, another reason why newspapers have been considered to be slowly dying out.  The internet allows its user to go to which ever news source they choose whether it be the conservative side such as Fox News or the more liberal side such as CNN.  As a society, we love having choices and having control over which news we receive.

The internet and new technology has allowed us to access news any time we want, when we want to access it.  There are, however, certain people that still do enjoy the flipping of a newspaper page, the smell of the newspaper or some that simply do not wish to merge with the concept of new media. Whether or not newspapers are on the way to complete extinction is something that only time can tell. 

Opinion article on the possible extinction of newspapers.  

How Steve Jobs revolutionized the way we listen to music.

Ever since I was young, music has been an essential part of my life.  I can remember riding around in the car with my dad as a little girl and listening to Journey, Boston, The Beatles, Aerosmith and Stevie Ray Vaughn.  My dad would tell me, "Brianna, no matter how you are feeling or what mood you are in, there is a song that will always match it."  To this day, I have yet to find that statement to be false.  Music has a way of lifting us up, brightening our day or reminding us of a memory whether it be good or bad.  Everyone has that one song that can completely change their mood from bad to amazing, for me that song is "Free Fallin'", by Tom Petty.

The music industry has been changing ever since I can remember, which granted isn't that long of a time span but the amount it has changed is astronomical. When I first started driving, I had an endless amount of cd's stacked into several cd holders and "binders" as I called them.  I had cd's from the time I was 11 to that present time.  At times it was certainly overwhelming to dig through stacks of cd's just to listen to that song that I had stuck in my head.  Even at the gym, I had to lug around a bulky cd player with just one cd in it to listen to for my entire work out, which eventually became very annoying. I figured that there had to be an easier way to listen and enjoy all of my favorite music without having to deal with the hassle of interchanging cd's every time I wanted to listen to a different artist or song.

When my older brother came to me and told me about this new device that he had just bought that enabled him to download his entire music collection and store it, I figured there was absolutely no way this was possible.  He showed me this thing called an iPod and said that he had every single piece of music he has ever owned downloaded onto it.  At first it seemed somewhat complicated to maneuver and it took me a quick second to completely figure it out.  I told my brother that this just seemed a little to good to be true.  He let me use his iPod for a couple of days for me to test it out and to see if I wanted to spend the money on it before I went out and bought it, since it wasn't exactly cheap.  After a couple of days testing it out, I was completely hooked and had to have it.

Steve Jobs, without a doubt, completely revolutionized the entire music industry.  With the invention of the iPod, Jobs made it to where our music could be portable without having the bulky factor of a portable cd player.  We are now able to pick and choose which songs we want to download through iTunes.  Instead of having to go out to a record store or shopping center to pay the $15.00 for a cd where we may only be interested in a couple songs, we can simply just open our iTunes on our smartphone and/or computer, search for the artist or band and click the specific songs we want and download them.  iTunes even allows us to preview about a minute and a half of that song to decipher whether or not that is a song we want to spend our money on.

Jobs did a magnificent job at accomplishing a way to revolutionize the music industry and making it to where it benefits the artist as well as the consumer.  Jobs opened the door for new media to constantly be changing and reinventing itself and has made the way for aspiring inventors to realize that absolutely anything is possible if you want it bad enough.





"It's not about charisma and personality, it's about results and products and those very bedrock things that are why people at Apple and outside of Apple are getting more excited about the company and what Apple stands for and what its potential is to contribute to the industry."  -Steve Jobs




Click here to read more about how Steve Jobs changed the music industry

5 Ways Apple revolutionized the way we listen to music