Week 4: Proliferation of Paper Media

Media is an intrinsic part of the lives of Americans. However, for the last century or so, media has been dominated by print. As the world as a whole becomes more digital, I wonder why almost all major publications remain on paper. If we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint, why are millions of paper products wasted everyday. I agree that some impoverished areas can only distribute news on paper as opposed to digitally, but for European countries and America, why can't we reduce our need of paper? All news should be able to be distributed digitally over the Internet. Some news sites, such as CNN, do publish much of their news online because they have no printed outlet, but periodicals such as the Birmingham News, The New York Times, or countless magazines, would do well to take a pseudo-page of CNN's book. Perhaps then, some of the paper that is wasted daily could be conserved.