Journalists’ lives are After diving into their However, there is a common Without those magic wall Cell phones and laptop Journalists would stare at For anyone who doubts Journalists are like Yes, there was a time when
pretty simple.
coffee, journalists spend their days hunting for news and then reporting it.
Throw in an angry e-mail or phone call and it’s straightforward enough; report
the news before the other guys.
thread that makes all of the above possible – electricity.
sockets the coffee machine wouldn’t hum to life, the web wouldn’t generate
e-mails and inch counts would be reduced to zero.
batteries would run dry. Twitter and Facebook updates would cease to exist.
Even the phones, faxes, printers and copy machines would grind to halt.
blank computer screens and bang their heads against their iPhones.
journalists’ deep seeded addiction to the “juice,” simply attend an event where
there is a press table with only two wall sockets. There will be blood.
junkies when it comes to electricity. They need it. The first thing a
journalist does when he enters a room with a laptop is scan the wall for the
nearest electrical socket.
journalists were able to get by with nothing more than a typewriter and a
carrier pigeon. But there was also a time when journalists didn’t have to write
four stories a day, file three web updates, tweet, take photos, record video
and get laid off by noon.
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Paul Gillin in his Newspaper Death Watch last week blogged this
brief item, first time the news appeared:
Dan Bloom has come up with a new word for newspapers. He calls them
“snailpapers.” Only the longtime newspaperman insists this is a term
of endearment, not derision. He thinks maybe if newspapers poked more
fun at themselves instead of getting all righteously indignant about
new media, they would generate more sympathy. More on his blog at “zippy1300″.
THE SNAILPAPER STATEMENT
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that while the Digital Age
is upon us fast and furious, the print newspaper — hereafter dubbed
the “snailpaper” — shall persevere as a good daily read, a
fascinating look at the world around us and a valuable tool for
understanding oped pundits and above the fold headlines. Sure, the
dear snailpaper will also be seen as a useful tool
for wrapping fish at the Fulton Fish Market or lining the bird cage in
the den, but all kidding aside — har! har! — the daily snailpaper
can hold its head high and be certain of its place in the culture.
While news migrates in pixels and bytes to the Internet at an
exponential rate, piling breaking story upon breaking story and
turning everyone and his mother into a 24/7 news freak and RSS
aggregator, the plodding snailpaper will nevertheless remain the
bedrock of analysis and insight, from sea to shining sea, delivered at
a snail’s pace, yes, read at a snail’s pace, yes, and absorbed, word
for word — on glorius printed paper! white newsprint reflecting inked
letters! — at a snail’s pace, yes, as long as the Republic of Letters
shall live.”
amen
I was on an embed exercise with Royal Marine Commandos a couple of months back, and never before has the journalistic thirst for (electrical) power been more evident. My colleague & I had mild heart attacks every time the generator that ran our ‘field edit suite’ spluttered & copped out, and as the Marines were in charge of supplying the fuel, we were in their hands. Thankfully, after 24hrs they stopped hating us for being “dirty liberal journos” and actually kept us topped up rather than enjoying watching us panic every time the fuel levels got low.