On Dec. 3, 2009, Campbell University communications studies professor Dr. Michael Ray Smith debated the topic of “Google vs. Newspapers” live on France 24, a 24/7 international news channel. He was a guest on the daily show “The France 24 Debate.” The show is a live debate on a particular topic of the day, with three guests, presented by Mark Owen. The two other guests on the show were Steven Erlanger, New York Times Paris Bureau Chief and Lorena Galliot, France 24 Internet Desk Journalist.
The internet has made news free and readily available to online readers, leading to the demise of many newspapers. While the Google search engine directs millions of visitors to newspaper websites across the country, some major news corporations object that Google seems to profit from their journalistic efforts.
“Google is aggregating content from a lot of news sources and not paying the originator of the content,” said Smith. “This policy angers newspapers because Google benefits from the newspaper’s work but the newspaper is not getting any compensation except increased web traffic.”
A former journalist, Smith spent a decade working as a reporter and editor of newspapers including Gannett Co., owner of USA Today, Lancaster newspapers, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and others. Smith is also the author of “FeatureWriting.Net” and three other books.
To see the debate check out the following links:
http://www.france24.com/en/20091203-France-24-debate-google-newspapers-pay-crisis-murdoch
http://www.france24.com/en/20091203-France-24-debate-google-newspapers-pay-crisis-murdoch-part2