The Problem with Online

Online Online Online. It's the only thing worth reading these days. Apparently...

Forgive me for being argumentative but online is only a stop-gap for proper journalism. It gives you what you want when you want it, but like a sandwich at lunch, it's only a snack before a real meal of newspapers or magazines - (this metaphor has got confused but you get the point...)

I love BBC online but it is filled with mistakes, especially the Sports section and as Amanda Powell told us the other day, people, users sorry, only stick around for a few minutes and so the news is nothing more than the bare minimum that a person can remember to sound intelligent when down the pub with their social networks.

Other online sites have similar procedures/problems and it all leaves me underwhelmed (can you just be whelmed?) by how robotic it sounds. When you read a quality paper or a well-written magazine the writing is far more interesting, absorbing and treats you with a degree of respect. The world seems to assume we all care, watch and even vote on Big Brother, X Factor etc. when in fact some of us are intelligent enough to realise it's a money making gimmick dressed up as 'entertainment'.

Whilst Online journalism is going to become a mainstay of our future it does not represent the end of anything. Some of us will still want a well-written, crafted in-depth piece about the music of Led Zeppelin, or the drug problems in South America or something else which Online Journalism does not want to cater for.