Build The Wall analysis

Summarise each section in one sentence:

• Section 1 (To all of the bystanders reading this…)

"I know that content wants to be free on the Internet. I know that the horse was long ago shown the barn door and that, belatedly, the idea of creating a new revenue stream from online subscriptions seems daunting and dangerous."

• Section 2 (Truth is, a halting movement toward...)

"Will it work? Is there enough demand for old-line, high-end journalism in the age of new media? Will readers pay for what they have already accepted as free? And can industry leaders claw their way back in time to the fateful point when they mistook the Internet as a mere advertising opportunity for their product?"

• Section 4 (For the industry, it is later than it should be…)

"The Times and The Post survive, their revenue streams balanced by still-considerable print advertising, the bump in the price of home delivery and news-stand sales, and, finally, a new influx of cheap yet profitable online subscriptions."

Summarise David Simon’s overall argument in 250 words.

David simon's overall argument was basically the belief he had about how news shouldn't be a free service and its should be paid for by the general public, the reason he made this statement is because he has acknowledged the fact that the news and journalism industry is starting to face a major decline in the industry which means that these major companies need to act fast to prevent their businesses from falling. The means that if all these companies are all offering a free service, eventually the companies are just going to collapse mainly due to the new and digital media effect. Also, David Simon said he is a fan of online subscriptions so therefore he believe that all news should be paid for regardless of the provider. If this doesn't happen it will also lead to a large number of jobs being cut for journalist and editors which will have a major impact on the economy.So if companies want to prevent this from happening, they should most definitely ensure that they start charging a weekly or monthly subscription fee to ensure that they are making enough revenue and profits.Also, he believes that this should have happened when the internet was first introduced so that the general public could have adapted to this particular scheme at first. 

Read this response to the article by Dave Levy, criticising and disagreeing with David Simon's viewpoint. What references to new and digital media can you find in Levy's response?


"We’ll start with the context. Simon argued that it will require the simultaneous (read: questionably bartered slash colluded slash anti-trust) movement of the two remaining juggernauts of print media to build a successful, pay-per-read online news model. He’s right in one way: there’s no doubt that the content within these sites is at the top of the most linked to on blogs and Twitter; therefore, it’s among the gateways of online news. If anyone can lead, it’s probably them."

Finally, what is your own opinion? Do you agree that newspapers need to put online content behind a paywall in order for the journalism industry to survive? Would you be willing to pay for news online? Critical autonomy is the key skill in A2 Media - you need to be able form opinions on these issues.
In my opinion,i don't agree with newspapers needing to put online content behind a paywall, this is because of the new and digital media impact, news can be accessed from anywhere across the world within a matter of seconds, so therefore even if it goes behind a paywall you may still be able to read about the same story on another site or on social media. However, the journalism industry is going to carry on going downhill because of new and digital media so therefore its understandable why they want to create a paywall as these well known companies won't generating any revenue if they dont create a paywall.
personally, i wouldn't even consider having to pay for news online as it is something that should be a free public service to the audiences. This is mainly because i believe that the general public should always be kept up to date with what's going on with the society and government for free.