Situating the social sustainability of print media in a world of digital alternatives

Abstract The aim of this paper is to discuss the social sustainability of print newspapers amidst the decline of their revenues and readerships and the rise of digital media. After a general introduction on sustainability, we focus on social sustainability and in particular on how the media system is an important factor of social participation and sustainable social change. How media practices currently support social sustainability are described and discussed. Then, we present our line of inquiry on print newspapers, which have come to be seen as the weakest layer in the network of personal media. We analyze the specific relationship between sustainability and the model of communication of print newspapers. In particular, we attempt to articulate a comparison between the model of print newspapers and that of online information in order to explore whether the communication model of print remains sustainable by complementing the digital media and the social media network. Then we compare the two economic models – print and online. Finally, we explore the specific contribution that print newspapers give to the debate on sustainability in comparison with the contribution of the digital world.

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