PAT JENKINS Dispatch editor The Dispatch is proud to announce Morgan Mann as the recipient of its first college scholarship for journalism and communications students. Mann graduated this month from Eatonville High School, where she was the salutatorian of her class, holder of a 3.9 grade point average, and active in a number of activities. In other words, she perfectly fit the criteria GÇô academic success, community and school involvement, and interest in a journalism-related field as a possible career GÇô for our scholarship, which was offered to graduating seniors at Eatonville, Graham-Kapowsin and Bethel high schools, as well as any other seniors in our circulation area who were homeschoolers or attended private high schools. To give you an even better idea of why we're so impressed by Mann and thrilled to have a part in helping her pursue her post-high school aspirations at University of Portland, where she plans to double-major in English and education, here is some of what she wrote for the 500-word essay we asked applicants to write on the future of journalism in an increasingly online society. "Print has been the medium to influence society for ages through the communication of ideas, preservation of stories and distribution of information. Yet as new technological advances are made, digital publishing has begun to overshadow printed publications. This competition between theh two mediums creates a dilemma for journalism. But htere needn't be a loser if both mediums can exist cohesively; it is the only way journalism will survive. In order for this to happen, it is important to both preserve the benefits of printed journalism, like its integrity, availability and sentimentality, wihile also taking advantage of the enhancements of digital literature, whch include the ability to share, update and interact with content. "Printed journalism must be preserved in order for it to be successful in the marketplace. Not everyone has access to the Internet. Two years ago, 61.9 million people in the U.S. still didn't have Internet. These people depend on printed news. Another advantage is the standard that printed newspapers have, which are more selective than the digital newspapers that print an infinite number of articles. Anything can be posted, but not everything is printed. In addition to this, including interesting local news givers smaller-scale newspapers a step above large online newspapers. People buy newspapers not only for the news, but for sentimentality. They keep the marriage announcements or the sports photos. It isn't the same to print those off the Internet. There's something special about good old-fashioned newsprint that must be preserved ... "That personal aspect of printed newspapers translates to digital news because people share news and photos with others on the Web. This is one of ther reasons why putting a newspaper online is beneficial to the paper ... "By combining the two mediums, journalism will have a bright future in the online-based society we live in.GÇ¥ Having bright young people like Morgan Mann will help an awful lot, too.
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