Television and newspaper are two reigning media outlets when it comes to delivering the news. Because they are dominant sources of news information, many have posed the question, which is better, TV or newspapers? The answer is that the selection all boils down to personal taste.
In practical sense, both television and newspapers are good sources of news information. In theory, nevertheless, the news presentation coming from both of them varies a great deal. The television largely provides visual and audio content whereas the newspapers provide text and a few visual images.
Television is one form of media that is most accessible to people. This is so for most household has a television set in them. Studies show that people get more of their news from local TV news programs. And, television was only introduced soon after the World War II.
The advantage of television as a news media outlet stems from the fact that it can deliver news more quickly than the newspaper. In a 30-minute news program, one can already grab hold of enough information about the current events not only locally but also overseas. The news information is concise and can span a wide range from major news to sports and entertainment updates.
The great benefit of TV news is having the ability to show footages of events that have transpired and even feature happenings on a live scale. People are immediately transported to where the events are happening whenever they tune in to the news channels. The disadvantage, however, is that the access to the news and sequence with which it is presented is mainly controlled by the TV news organization. You won’t have any archives to go back to unless you’ve gone into taping the said newscast.
People predicted that the arrival of TV news programs will kill the circulation of newspapers that first began since the 17th century. However, it was never the case. Up until now, newspapers strongly compete with TV newscasts for delivering the news to the public.
The edge of the newspapers can be attributed to their in-depth presentation of the news. When TV news can be brief and concise, more information and details that are usually skipped from the nightly newscasts can be read in the paper. There is no specific hour to which a person has to tune in to grab the news. A newspaper can be read anytime. One can spend as much time into it and can put it down and come back reading it later. The reader also gains control as to what stories or articles to read. If sports news is what interests him, he can readily flip the pages and go head straight to the sports sections. Moreover, articles can be cut out and save for future reference.