College Students Mixed About Online Journalism

By Katie Thompson

A common trend sweeping over the world of journalism has arrived at Gordon College. More and more across the nation, print news has been evaporating into world of online journalism, and beginning this Fall Gordon College’s own newspaper, The Tartan, will be going completely online.

In the past, The Tartan, student led and operated, has offered students a place to catch up on what is going on around campus. As the paper now looks toward the future of going completely online, it will seek to keep its same basic values and principles.

As journalism has become increasingly accessible online, the nation’s youth are turning to the Internet to access the information that is important to them.

Katie Zarrilli, 19, a Communication Arts major, now receives her news almost exclusively by means of the Internet. She follows the Web Site of her home news station to find out what is going on locally, nationally, and globally.

“It is important that everyone knows what is going on; news connects people,” said Zarrilli. The Tartan going online will provide Zarrilli with another way to keep up with the news, especially that pertaining to her life at Gordon.

Not all students, however, are as willingly accepting of the trend of online journalism. Hala Coker, 19, a Deciding major, believes that The Tartan should remain a printed publication.

“No one is going to read it. In my opinion no one seemed to read it when is was in hard copy, so I’m not sure that people will make the effort to go online to read it now,” stated Coker.

Coker acknowledges that she has never been a big newspaper reader, yet she still represents a large percentage of students who will not be so readily accepting of a solely online Tartan.

Thus far there have been mixed reviews on the paper going online, just as there is currently a large national divide as to whether online journalism will prove to have a positive or negative effect on the field of journalism.

As The Tartan makes its biggest transition in over 50 years of publication, only time will tell whether students will make the transition with it or if it will simply fall to the wayside.