Responsible Journalism

A friend shared this link with me and I thought it was relevant to many discussions we have (aside from being pretty awesome).

This group is setting out to reinstate long-form journalism, and I think it's fantastic. They make some really valid points about news today... rapid-fire bits of info that pepper our sense, reaching us through a haze of advertisements that are trying to compete with the news. (There's some irony there, I think... advertisers might like to think they are piggy-backing off of a news site's reach and simply giving people access to information they might want, but really they are also doing everything they can to distract from the main news. And news sources eat it up for the revenue - almost all sites have ads above content.)

I am a dinosaur like Megan... I champion long-form literature and journalism, and you don't want to get me started on my thoughts about reading online:) I'm actually interested in doing doctoral research in this area and I'd love to start a nonprofit someday or work with an organization already working to change ever-decreasing interest in long-form reading, especially in youth. Relating to our articles, I think dedicating this time is becoming increasingly difficult. "Choosing the Focused Life" talked about essentially working out our brains to be able to focus better, which is great, but I think that will only get more difficult as the media environment continues to develop. In Nick Carr's "The Shallows", one prominent graduate from Florida said something to the affect of this: "Why would I ever read a book again when I can just Google it?"

Is long-form reading a lost cause? I see benefits, and research has proved them, but is there any chance of making people (especially youth) see that? And is it something developing cultures should think about as the skip the print era and go straight to digital? How will their individual development differ?