Times Change

It’s been 50 years since I first started working for a newspaper. I’ve seen a lot of changes.

We’ve gone from moveable type to Twitter. Newspapers were once laid out on the “stone” in the composing room and stories were set in metal type. You had to be able to read upside down and backwards to proofread.

You had three editions and perhaps a couple of replates throughout the day. Now with the Internet, stories are updated at any time throughout the day.

TV has changed as well. I was still in England as a child when JFK was shot in Dallas. The BBC didn’t know how to cover it. In the pre-satellite days of television, there was no footage until they could fly it over the Atlantic. We knew he was dead, but we had no details.

As I recall, the BBC put up a test card because I think they found it inappropriate to continue with their regular programming.There were news updates throughout the evening, but details were sketchy and we sat staring at a mostly static screen, wondering what was happening.

Now major news is covered wall-to-wall, 24/7 with sat trucks beaming every detail instantly around the world.

On reflection, I think too much information is better than too little.