Screening Out The Press

Newspapers are in trouble. It's not that people don't want to read about what's going on, it's just that more and more choose to do so on screens via the internet. In fact according to a new report from the Pew Research Centre called 'The State Of The News Media', last year saw for the first time more Americans getting their news from the web than printed papers. Setting aside critically important issues about the quality, degree of impartiality and depth of what people are reading on the internet, shifting patterns in how readers consume the news threatens the future of newspapers. Of course many newspapers have for several years been busy developing a multimedia presence on the internet offering podcasts, video footage and other web content that augments their print offerings. Making all of this an economic proposition however is somewhat more challenging. 

One attempt at an answer has been Rupert Murdoch's new type of newspaper specifically designed for viewing on an iPad. 'The Daily' provides news, but onlike it's print rivals video and ongoing updates on stories as well. Launched last month on a free trial basis to owners of the Apple devise in the US, it will be moved to a subscription basis with readers paying 99 cents a week, while the newspaper-website hybrid will become available to European readers in June. Many questions are of course begged by all this, not the least of which concerns what sort of world are we heading into when you read content delivered by Murdoch's massive News Corporation on a device produced by Steve Jobs's huge Apple? While pondering this, we at Highly Questionable have adopted newspapers as the theme of today's quiz as we take a nostalgic look at the good old days when honest to god megalomaniac press barons helped shape our world view             

 Subject Quiz 

 1  Which American newspaper did the journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward work for when they broke the story of the Watergate scandal that led to the downfall of President Nixon?

 2  What was the name of the Russian newspaper, whose title translated as 'truth' in English, that carried the official views of the communist government during the Soviet era?

 3  What is the title of the newspaper based in the fictional city of Metropolis that Clark Kent and Lois Lane write for?

 4  What is the title of Evelyn Waugh's classic novel which brilliantly satirises the world of sensationalist journalism and features the fictional newspaper 'The Daily Beast'?

 5  Later adapted into a Billy Wilder directed film starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, what was the title of the hit Broadway musical that was set in and around the newspaper industry in Chicago?

Answers will be published along with the next Highly Questionable quiz and associated blog post.

 Ireland Quiz Answers 

The answers to the previous Highly Questionable quiz, which took Ireland as its theme, are:-

 1  Snakes were the creatures which according to legend St Patrick banished from Ireland.

 2  The Giant's Causeway is the name by which the unusual hexagonal volcanic structures on the north coast of Ireland are known.

 3  The Book of Kells is the name of the manuscript which relates the Christian gospels through a blend of exquisit calligraphy and Celtic illuminated design.  

 4  James Joyce wrote the short story collection 'Dubliners'.

 5  Ulster, Munster, Connacht & Leinster are the names of the Ireland's four provinces. 

The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com.