THE DECLINE OF AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS--WHAT IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIETY HAS INCREASING MEDIA CONVERGENCE MADE?

New Media has changed the way humans think, communicate, live and interact with each other. Many scholars view this evolution as media revolution. New media pushed aside older forms of analog and print communication systems, giving its users more power and control over how they receive information. As new media evolved, it became more convergent, combining different forms of knowledge providers into one all encompassing online digital utility: the Internet. Convergent media consolidation has increasingly changed individuals into consumers who access, process, and communicate information at the local, national, and international levels. Has this new convergent media sounded the death knell for American newspapers? Newspapers are struggling to stay alive with decreased circulation and ad revenue down by seven percent in 2009. The Tribune Company may have to close the San Francisco Examiner. The Rocky Mountain News, founded in 1859, has closed its doors while a stunned Denver community watched. Newspapers are struggling, but they have not given up. Education was based, in part, on analog communications (printed books, journals; broadcast videos, and traditional film) until 1992 when the Internet became more user-friendly and thus more popular. With the increased adoption of new media, what changes has society and higher education experienced? Many see this change as an opportunity for printed media and other older communication forms within societal conventions to reinvent themselves. Using primary research and interviews with photographers, writers, graphic artists and the assistant managing editor of a Southwestern, American mid-size newspaper, this work examines how convergent media affects news print media and explores new ideas for saving the newspaper, from creating online presence to exploring new types of products to discovering niche markets while looking at some of the changes that increased use of convergent media has wrought upon society.