National Newspaper Week Provides Connections to the Past

Managing Editor

   Newspapers tell us about what is happening today and reminds us what has happened in the past.

   Newspapers come in many different forms of weeklies, dailies, national and metropolitan dailies and online versions, among others. They can be found on almost all of the continents and almost every country around the world.

   In the present, newspapers give the public a look at the daily events going on in their community, country and around the world. Not only do they give us information the public needs to stay informed and make decisions, but they also gives us a connection to the past.

   In addition to telling us what happening now, they also tell us about our past. Newspapers give us aging pages informing us about our past, which may or may not be in the history books.

   People learn about history from different sources like history classes, books, television and from those who have lived it. Historic events published in newspapers (even though it was not historic at the time) tell us about the event, remind us about the past and gives the public a chance to look just how far we have come.

   The news of John F. Kennedy’s assassination made news in 1963 with bold headlines on the front page of the Los Angeles Times. The attacks on the World Trade Centers brought public surprise as publications across the nation displayed the event with bold works and even bigger pictures  The tragedy of his death (Kennedy) and the 9-11 attacks shocked and surprised the people of the United States.

    A person can watch the footage of the attacks, but photographs allow a person to look and examine the event and in a sense it freezes the moment in time. Newspapers created a lasting memory of these events that not only reminds us what was but brings us into the present as we look at how time has progressed.

   Newspapers have been apart of the world  since the invention of the printing press which aided in the mass production of books, newspapers and other printed materials. The history of newspapers goes back 400 years according to World Association of Newspapers. The world’s oldest newspapers still in circulation date from Post- och Inrikes Tidningar (Sweden) first published in 1645 to The Alpine Avalanche (USA) published 1891.

   The world of newspapers has changed from handwritten pages to printed version and now online versions. National Newspaper Week 2009 held Oct. 4-10, promotes the important role of newspapers with the theme “Newspapers: Carrying the Torch of Freedom.” The Kentucky Press Association’s Web site describes the week’s objective as “Building the image of newspapers as a vital and vigorous news medium in the past, present and future as our industry uses all the changing technology to remain the leading gatherer, editor and dispenser of news in the this nation.”

   To look at newspapers representing the formats of weekly, national, historic and major metropolitan daily newspapers, the Fred J. Taylor Library and Technology Center is currently displaying examples from these four types set up by the Journalism Club.  A Nov. 22, 1963 Los Angeles Times headlines the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy as one of the historic newspapers on display.

   There may come a time when newspapers are no longer printed on paper, but they will live on even if you read your news from a computer screen. The future of the printed newspaper changes everyday as technology evolves, but even if newspapers are no longer printed on paper they will continue to be one connection to past.

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©The Voice 2009