Newspapers. You may have heard of them. You may remember them. Some of you may still receive them at your home every day. On television and in the movies, they’re something dad reads every morning over breakfast while the family buzzes around him, or on the subway to work as he is jostled and pickpocketed. Today, newspapers are about as quaint as telephones connected by wires to a plug in the wall. Many schools also used to have their own student-run newspaper, but it seems these, too, are going the way of the landline telephone.
Journalism itself is dying, or at least mutating extensively under the weight of the Internet. With the disappearance of budget money for student newspapers, I wonder how much longer it will be before young learners study old newspapers the same way we study anything else in our history books.
Does your school produce a student-run newspaper? If you have thoughts or opinions on student journalism and news writing, share them here. Perhaps you or a teacher you know now helps students produce a school e-newspaper? The Mailbox editors would like to hear from you.