More on the Decline of Newspapers

A couple weeks back, I noted the death of the Rocky Mountain News in this post, and linked to an essay by Hal Crowther on the changes confronting contemporary journalism. Here's another good story, written by Clay Shirky, that speaks to the revolutionary nature of such changes, drawing comparisons between the current situation and the impact of the invention of the printing press back in the 15th century. If you are interested in the state of the media, it's worth taking a look; in fact it may provide some insight into how we think about other kinds of changes confronting society as time goes by. Shirky's take seems to be generating considerable attention-- I received it as an e-mail this morning and have already seen it linked to on a couple of other sites.