Part 1
The newspaper felt heavy in my hands and it was interesting to feel the weight of what had happened around the world in this one single segment of time. The pages themselves were smooth and familiar and gave off small amounts of ink with every turn of the page. My kitten took the paper as a challenger and attacked each page with fervour. The date was printed at the top showing how permanent the document was. The front page article featured a slightly grainy color picture of hurricane damage, the paper smelled like dirt, rain and ink all at once.
I flipped through each section and ran into some ad flyers in the middle and a book of coupons for various products I removed them and put them aside. The articles themselves were even littered on either side with ads and the article’s content was in rectangular blocks running down each page. I flipped back through the sections and pulled out the segment labelled ARTS and placed the rest of the paper next to me. I scanned the various articles and noticed that color images were only on the front pages. I read a couple of synopsis of new fiction novels coming out this fall and noticed that underneath the articles were movie show times and various upcoming concerts.
I found another article concerning the upcoming presidential election and began reading and halfway through was instructed to turn to A8 to finish reading the article. I folded the paper twice in order to single out the article I wanted to read which made it much easier to read. By this time half of the newspaper was destroyed strew across my floor as my kitten pranced about it performing a victory dance of sorts.
Part 2
I sat down at my computer and opened up Firefox and simply typed in USA Today in the address bar and the built in search engine pulled up the digital version of my newspaper. The homepage reflected the same article that was on the front page of the paper I had looked at but it was squished over to one side of the screen. The format was almost overwhelming. I speculated that in order to explore all of the content on just the homepage would take several hours. My kitten took equal interest in this form of the newspaper as well, or rather the clicking noises that I was making with my mouse.
On each side of the article were advertisements for Dell and Verizon, obviously pointed at more electronically inclined individuals who would rather read the newspaper online. The front page had many more options than the paper format and the various sections of the newspaper were in a block going down the other side of the homepage. The top of the page also featured the different sections on brightly colored hyperlink buttons. I selected the “Tech” section and was greeted with a full page Dell ad and a button which I could click to “Continue Reading”.
I chose an article about the videogame Spore and another page loaded with even more Dell ads and this time the inner articles had several full color pictures and graphics. On the side of the article was a list of hyperlinks that you could use to share the article with others including: Digg, Facebook and Newsvine. Below the article was a list of tags regarding other articles I might be interested based on the article I had previously chosen. The Tags included subjects like Windows, Youtube and Playstation.
I scrolled down further and found a section in which other readers could comment about the article and at the very bottom was another menu with the newspapers sections, an option to email the editor and a list of partners. I scrolled back up to the top and noticed a convenient search engine that boasted that I could use it to search for “Articles, graphics and more” and typed in “Global Warming”.
The search function loaded a new page and sure enough on the right side was a list of articles about Global Warming and on the “latest” that was related, as well as a list of the top searches.
Part 3
Both papers attempted to stick to the “Block newspaper format” and to the article accompanied by a picture format. However, the digital newspaper typically had more pictures and even videos. Both papers had advertisements but the digital ones were very electronic related and those in the actual newspaper tended to be about cars and other various machinery.
The digital newspaper also seemed to have many more articles, pictures and information about stocks and celebrities, probably the work of years of market research on who prefers online resources verse offline.
The Digital paper offered many more chances for the reader to give their opinion on each article, as the material newspaper only offered a “letter to the editor” section in which your opinion may or may not be featured. In addition the online newspaper was easier to navigate and less of a mess. It allows the reader to jump to an exact subject right away rather than flipping and removing sections and then folding the paper up like some kind of origami in order to read an article. Just a simple click and the whole thing is isolated from the rest of the paper, but a simple scroll down and the rest of the paper is at your fingertips.
Another difference is that the physical paper is completely concrete and permanent. It contained articles from a specific times and dates that were permanently printed on ink. A misprint would have to be retracted in the next issue. Whereas the digital paper could be edited at a moment’s notice and updated by the hour. The information is certain to be fresh and new unless you wanted to read an older article in which case you simply would search for the subject you were after. In order to do the same with a physical newspaper you would have to read through each issue, or of course, just go online.
The digital paper in essence simply takes the same paper as the one you get on the newsstand and adds a myriad of features, graphics, content and different ads and places it all online . But also gives a way in which the reader can talk back and communicate with other readers about how they feel about the paper. It becomes more of a community experience that grows with the reader in unison.
