Response to Nick's Q

Q: Considering the current decline in print journalism, do you think it has fallen to a consumer-based rise in demand for such readily accessible media as video? What's your take on that difference in hypermedia?

A: I agree that the consumer-based rise in demand for easily accessible media is the cultural trend. It appears that print journalism is weeded out with the ever-dominant role of broadcast and digital media. However, we as citizens and viewers have the choice to expose ourselves to whatever type of media we want. Even though video tries to emulate reality by taking the viewers on-the-scene and giving them an exclusive look into any given subject, it will never attain reality. Unless we are all living in a daze or completely unaware of our surroundings, we will realize that hypermediacy isn't a substitution for reality. True, it's fun to put on a pair of night goggles and experience virtual reality, but that fantastic fantasy is almost as surreal as the idea that Elvis Presley is still alive. We as a society has forgotten the immediacy of the very paper and ink that journalists have poured their labor into paging together. The authentic news is still found from imagining the scene, not seeing it on TV. Because even though we see it, we have no real recollection or memory of experiencing it and personally feeling it. Nothing replaces reality.