NEWS - papers

The newspaper was the source for news. A young lad on bicycle would throw it onto your porch every morning. It was reserved for father to read before shared with the family.

Pages were the size of a folding map and took the same skill to fold small enough to read. Each section had it’s own title: National news, local news, government news, business news, society news, sports news, comics, and classifieds. Sprinkled throughout the pages were advertisements for motorcars, appliances, clothing, houses, travel and much more.

Graphics were difficult to reproduce so the journalist had to describe who, what, where, when and why in an inverted triangle to help the editor and diagramed the bottom if necessary. Limited fonts and sizes gave the variety to the long columns of type.

Beside the ‘Dick and Jane’ books or the Bible; newspapers were the only available reading material. Stories on domestic abuse, gender variation, mental illness, religious atonement, substance abuse, and others were subjects left to the family or church to handle and swept under the carpet.

National news came in over the wire and usually was read days after the event. Local news might only take a day to assemble. Government reporting usually made the Editorial page with the publishers slant on what laws were being pass. Most business was about changes in CEOs while the rest of real estate; shopping centers, transportation, shopping sale days and travel relied upon advertising to provide the news. Sports were about the scores and the local teams. Classified were taken over the phone in alphabetical listing. Comics were delivered from the syndicates for the entire week.

The society page (or later the Women’s Page) were sewing secrets, cooking recipes, and columns like ‘Ask Amy’ for gossip secrets. Since the newspaper was also the town crier, social events like cotillions or wealthy dinner parties became news worthy.

Today’s news is different.

News is presented as entertainment. Beyond the flashy graphics and the smiling faces, the information that should be assembled and recorded by journalist with the knowledge of what to look for and what questions to ask then deciphered and corrected by fact checkers and acceptable style until editors approve for printing.

Instead the latest viral cell phone video will appear as fact with no additional information and announcers will refer to bloggers or people with long titles but questionable authority to reference an idea, truth or false.

Local news has become social media post and endless chat rooms. Government has too many polarized approaches to understand what is real and what is political propaganda. Businesses have dropped advertising to form their own websites with constant streaming and posting deals and specials to entice the social media reader. Society (or Lifestyes) has become personalized blogs and podcast and everyone has become their personal expert, with iPhone camera in hand. Sports first became entertainment with radio telecasting play-by-play games before television showed every angle with a team of analyzers and broadcasters filling the airwaves while the players took a break for commercials. The pen to paper comics turned into animated GIFs and eBay took away the classifieds.

In-depth reporting with follow ups has dissolved into a fleeting remark only to turn the page for the next mass shooting or airplane crash or celebrity domestic upheaval.

Obituaries are still the same. A photo, usually much younger, and a description of the family, a brief history and where to send the flowers is all that is left.