By the end of the night, 68 percent of their audience answered, "No."
The debate, titled "Good Riddance to Mainstream Media," pitted three pro-mainstream media panelists against three pro-new media panelists to settle the question of how new and old media interact with each other.
The affirmative side stressed the inevitable death and consolidation of mainstream media, while the opposing side argued that new media are too unreliable and do not have the necessary finances to operate successfully.
Arguing in favor of abolishing mainstream media, Michael Wolff opened the debate at the Skirball Center. Wolff is a Vanity Fair columnist and founder of the news aggregation site Newser.
"I started at The New York Times in 1973, so I thought I'd be one of the people who'd been in this business the longest, but you're an old crowd," Wolff said.
Throughout the debate some of the panelists addressed members of the audience, many of whom work for newspapers and other publications. A Hearst Corporation employee cited a developing news story for the Houston Chronicle as an example of newspapers' credibility and to question new media's ability to reach sources and cover stories effectively.
In response, John Hockenberry, co-host of a morning news radio program called The Takeaway, said, "It's a false argument to say this cannot and will not be done in new media."
David Carr is a media columnist from The New York Times who argued against eliminating mainstream media. He raised a printed-out copy of the home page of Newser, with stories aggregated from mainstream media cut out. With the cuts, there was virtually no content left on the page.
Before and after the debate the audience voted for or against eliminating mainstream media, or remained undecided. The side that changed the most minds was determined the winner.
At the start of the debate, 25 percent of the audience was for, 50 percent was against and 8 percent was undecided about whether to eliminate mainstream media. But at the end, 68 percent was against.
The event was the fourth in a series of debates sponsored by Intelligence Squared U.S., a group that hosts Oxford-style debates in New York City.
The affirmative side stressed the inevitable death and consolidation of mainstream media, while the opposing side argued that new media are too unreliable and do not have the necessary finances to operate successfully.
Arguing in favor of abolishing mainstream media, Michael Wolff opened the debate at the Skirball Center. Wolff is a Vanity Fair columnist and founder of the news aggregation site Newser.
"I started at The New York Times in 1973, so I thought I'd be one of the people who'd been in this business the longest, but you're an old crowd," Wolff said.
Throughout the debate some of the panelists addressed members of the audience, many of whom work for newspapers and other publications. A Hearst Corporation employee cited a developing news story for the Houston Chronicle as an example of newspapers' credibility and to question new media's ability to reach sources and cover stories effectively.
In response, John Hockenberry, co-host of a morning news radio program called The Takeaway, said, "It's a false argument to say this cannot and will not be done in new media."
David Carr is a media columnist from The New York Times who argued against eliminating mainstream media. He raised a printed-out copy of the home page of Newser, with stories aggregated from mainstream media cut out. With the cuts, there was virtually no content left on the page.
Before and after the debate the audience voted for or against eliminating mainstream media, or remained undecided. The side that changed the most minds was determined the winner.
At the start of the debate, 25 percent of the audience was for, 50 percent was against and 8 percent was undecided about whether to eliminate mainstream media. But at the end, 68 percent was against.
The event was the fourth in a series of debates sponsored by Intelligence Squared U.S., a group that hosts Oxford-style debates in New York City.
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