OCTOBER 15, 2008 | THE MEREDITH HERALD * Educating Women to Excel \ VOL XXVI • ISSUE 5
IlillDE
2 News
- ■ The Other-Half: Bring the
Parts Together Again i
3 Events . i
. ■ Corivocatioris in; 7 '
. The Courtyard; I- -
4 Science & Technology
■ ll’s Karaoke Time! ' :
5 Arts & Humanities
■ A Focus on our
Writeiv-inT-Resldence:' ,
Angela Davls-Gardner
■ The Last Picture
6 SpoitS' . e-
.-j'S j7n Sports Overview
■ Tennis Toumaittenfcrr, v.
Tuesday, Oct 7
7-8 Opinion & Campus Life
■ Lessons from a Dog
■ From ai Different Point
ofVievi^
ECONOMIC CRISIS:
THE HOUSING BUBBLE
by Jee-in Hur
Staff Writer
THE DEiVilSE OF PAPER JOURNALISM:
IS THE INTERNET WORTHY OF THE TASK?
by Melissa Santos
Staff Writer
Extra, extra time is what many local
news journalists are finding them
selves with as a result of the News &
Observer's recent cutting of 35 jobs,
20 of which were in the newsroom.
These layoffs are the latest in a se
ries of “staff reductions” the N&O
has been announcing since June
2008. But Raleigh’s daily paper isn’t
the only one reeling from declining
revenue; nationwide, newspapers
arc losing long-time subscribers and
advertisers to the Internet.
Today’s Internet is much more
than chat rooms and college humor;
in a recent Reuters study, nearly
half of 2,000 Americans surveyed
cited the Internet as their main news
source, while only 10% read news
papers for information. In an email to
N&O staffers posted on www.john-
zhu.com. Executive Editor John
Drescher stresses the importance
of referring readers to the newspa
per’s website for up-to-the-minute
news and sports. Like the N&O,
newspapers across the U.S. are
also revamping their websites due
to a slump in print advertising reve
nue and increased competition from
the “blogosphere.”
While the term has existed for al
most ten years, blogosphere didn’t
become a buzzword until the last
few. In Raleigh alone there are sev
eral blogs (one even operating as a
“news blog”) set on scooping one
another. Delivering news quickly
is a benefit to readers, but deliver
ing false or under-reported news is
not. Aspiring journalists know that
writing a good news article requires
research and reliable sources. When
these two key factors are set aside
for the sake of speed, accurate in
formation—what news strives to
provide—often gets left in the dust.
Unfortunately, even though citizen
journalism isn’t comparable to
professional journalism, it is more
popular. The New York Times and
The San Francisco Chronicle
have embraced the digital age
and now post ail their print con
tent as well as web extras on an
attractive, full-color site, but that
doesn’t guarantee they will attract
more readers. With browsers like
Google and Yahoo allowing read
ers to customize their own front
page to reflect Iheir interests and
nearly every website olTering an
RSS feed, weird news and jokes
and videos of the day often trump
traditional news. As Chronicle
Staff Writer Joe Garolbli discov
ered, “The 24-hour news cycle
doesn’t exist on rapidly growing
user-news sites...Neither do the
small cabal of editors who decide
what news readers and viewers
See PAPER JOURNALISM, PAGE 2
Convocations in
The Courtyard
(SEE PAGE 3)
On Sept. 7, 2008, Treasury Sec
retary Henry Paulson put Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac, companies
that play a critical and increasingly
dominant role in the mortgage mar
ket, under government conservator
ship and replaced both of their chief
executives. The two government-
sponsored firms own or guarantee
about $5 trillion in home loans,
which amounts to about half the na
tion’s total.
The companies buy mortgage
loans from banks and package those
loans into securities that they either
hold or sell to U.S. or foreign inves
tors. That allows traditional lenders
like Bank of America, Wells Fargo
and Washington Mutual to make
more loans. However, simply build
ing too many houses is driving the
price to their max. In 2006, the mort
gage loans started to be defaulted,
draining the companies’ financial
reserves and sending a chill through
credit markets worldwide. In
PhoW eounesy aOouUealeslate.ccm See HOUSING BUBBLE, PAGE 2
Green Tip for
the Week of
October 13
Fill up a water jug and
keep it in the refrigera
tor for cold water and
make your own ice.
During the 2008-09 academic
year, Meredith College’s cam
pus theme is “Sustaining our
Environment: Developing
our Greenprint.” To help the
Meredith community make
daily choices that are ben
eficial to the environment,
Angels for the Environment
have compiled a year’s worth
of tips for greener living.
To view/ green tips from
previous weeks, visit vww.
meredith.edu/campus-theme/
environmental-tips.htm.