Print is the undead

I’m an Internet freak. My definition of “textbook knowledge” is Wikipedia. When I wonder about the mysteries of the universe, my fountain of wisdom spouts directly from Google search. Two days without Twitter, I start missing all my friends, including my bro Justin Bieber. But really, who isn’t a freak of e-nature nowadays?

You can get the news online, so no need to spend for the daily papers. You can start your own blog, be a “citizen journalist” yourself, so you neglect the value of legitimate journalism. Everything cool is within reach of a mouse click — even MMDA has a traffic report on Twitter.

So for the third anniversary of Supreme, let’s play the devil’s advocate by taking on the question marks about the future of print journalism.

I Blog, Therefore I Am

I stumbled on a joke online. A man sees a newspaper vendor’s poster: “Print media is dying,” and says, “I already read that on the Internet yesterday.”

The blogging world is the promised land for the vainglorious. It’s where non-personalities — including personal sites such as Facebook and Twitter — become the online personalities they want to be in real life. It’s a fun place. But once you get a taste of the attention, you start developing an appetite for it.

So to get more hits on the web meter, the tendency is to sensationalize the content, which can be easily abused because there is no editorial presence to control the material. That is why some obnoxious bloggers have warmed up to the title “citizen journalists,” which is actually just a glorified term.

Add to that, the dissemination of e-information literally travels at the speed of light. It can go across the globe. Print media travels by ink. There is a very big difference. It’s a powerful weapon that shouldn’t be treated as a joke.

Is The Ink Fading?

Being an avid blogger in some distant past, I quickly became aware of the many limitations when I started writing for print:

Editorial oversight will always be the grammar police. Example, if I end every phrase with three dots... like this... to make it seem I’m thinking aloud... this is to be submitted to my editor as it is... but the words will be changed to please the gods of lexicon, Merriam & Webster... because that’s the job of the editorial staff...

Also, two tools that can sell papers are not tolerated: powerful expletives and the sexually explicit. If I place a parenthetical statement at the end of this paragraph, like a barrage of angry cuss words, or a dark confession that would totally humiliate me into ending my life, my editor would surely take it out to protect my well-being. (I have a man-crush on girly Justin Bieber.)

Aside from obvious limitations, the simple truth is the Internet is an awesome place. We can name at least 7,000 Wonders of the Internet: The five-minute flash of the “bare heart” of Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams on her Twitter. The genius mutation of half-chat addict, half-imbecile that is Jejemon. How can you compete with that?

We Are The Undead

Still, whoever says print media is the new Friendster should be left-hooked in the face with the cover of Manny Pacquiao on Time magazine.

And my man, Steve Jobs, has my back on this. As the ultimate innovator and forward thinker puts it, “I don’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers. I think we need editorial oversight now more than ever. Anything we can do to help newspapers find new ways of expression that will help them get paid, I am all for.”

Well, sir, the only solution I have right now is a religious one: Lure them in with a little help from the Devil.

Find the entities of Internet stardom. Let us entice them with even more fame — in the real world. Let us have dangling in front of them tons of free stuff only the legitimate press people can enjoy: free albums, free BlackBerry, free favors, free John Mayer tickets, free money. If that doesn’t work, you can always hack his e-mail account, threaten to send his mother a photo of an anonymous body part addressed to Charity from Pampanga.

Whichever works, because print media will keep itself alive no matter what. Just like the old movie theaters and radio transmitters did in the advent of the television set. The dorks can diss all they want: Print media is dying a slow death, nay, it’s probably dead already.

Well, I say, print media is the undead. We will die to come back as immortal beings. We have night vision and scary fangs. We are not soft like those ridiculous vegan vampires. Nor do we fall in love with pale human girls. Unless they’re as hot as Kristen Stewart. I’d have to think about that.

Anyway, the point is print media is not going extinct; it’s evolving. You just have to watch out for it.

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Any Justin Bieber man-crushes out there? Follow me @ http://twitter.com/PingMedina.