Community newspapers are newspapers specific to towns or neighborhoods. For example, The Acorn is a newspaper specific to Calabasas. These papers, such as the Beverly Hills Post and the Hollywood Star, are continually being shut down as a result of so few people buying them.

Also, most newspapers have a website which people can access for free. So, when the news is available for free, why would anyone pay for a print newspaper to be delivered to their homes? In an article published by Editor & Publisher, Jennifer Saba reported that between 2001 and 2009, one-fifth of journalists working in the U.S. were laid off.

This is all contributing to the slow but sure death of journalism.

Today, anyone can become a journalist. Anyone can make a blog from their beds without ever having to have an editor’s approval or even a basic journalistic education. Thus, fewer and fewer people are graduating with journalism degrees and applying to work at newspapers.

In an article published by the American Journalism Review (AJR), author Michael King says that enrollment of journalism majors has been “falling 33 percent over five years at Columbia College Chicago.” And the numbers continue to decline.

The millennial generation is unhappy with this fact. Every year, more and more millennials enter the workforce. If they are searching for careers that promise high profits, journalism is quickly losing its appeal.

And serious journalism doesn’t generally appeal to young people. In our society, most news that teens are aware of is regarding celebrities. Teens generally do not concern themselves with politics and other world news.

If teens do not care about news, then it is less likely that they will pursue journalism careers and ultimately, there will be no journalists to write for papers.

Ms. Gastaldi, our very own English and Journalism teacher, believes that teens have always been more interested in celebrity news than hard news: “Maybe twenty years ago it wasn’t the Kardashians, but it was something else.” She thinks that no teenager wants to read about “how many people were killed in Iraq yesterday,” but that is something that will come with time and age.

The world we are growing up in is very different from the world our parents grew up in. Terrorism is losing its “shock factor” as it is such a regular occurrence. Our generation needs to take more interest in reading and reporting the news so that we can take care of the world around us.

It is in our hands to ensure that true journalism does not die with our generation. We must take an interest in our society and what is happening around us to make sure that our generation is taken seriously. Only then can our parents pass the world on into hands they trust.