Sunday, March 03, 2002

 

March is Newspapers in Education Month. I'm all for that. My teachers, especially at the Catholic high school I attended, used newspaers quite a bit and I think I learned a lot from that type of teaching. This rant isn't about newspapers in education. It's about the person who wrote this editorial. It's non-byline editorial, but I can tell by the writing style who wrote it. He and I used to work at the same newspaper. My beef with his editorial is that he doesn't mention the Internet. I can't say I'm surprised. This is the man who, four years ago, said there was no point in having Internet access in the newsroom. Another reporter and I changed his mind, not by discussing (arguing) the benefits of Internet access, but by showing him the endless stream of information that can be obtained. One story that, we thought, showed him the light was about a train derailment 40 miles from the newspaper office. A young correspondent (stringer) was on the scene, but didn't have time to do much more than describe what was going on. But as soon as she let us know what chemical the train was carrying, I got on the 'net, gathered all the information I could about the chemical and turned her 5-inch story into an 18-inch front page story that carried a banner headline.

But I'm digressing. You'd think that a managing editor for a newspaper, when he's writing about newspapers in education, would at least mention the myriad news sites on the Internet and the almost endless amount of news that's available for students and teachers. The fact that he didn't shows me he'll never change. In this ever-changing world, it's hard to believe a man in his mid-30s can be so computer illiterate. What's frightening is, the man is a managing editor of a newspaper. In a way, he's shaping the way a community thinks. I'd say that I hope the rest of the community is more computer savvy than he is, but I know they're not. Sad. But, that's one of the bazillion reasons I'm not there anymore.

posted by Anne 3/03/2002 11:48:00 AM