In the short amount of time that I have lived on this planet, the way that we receive our news has changed dramatically. Relatively recently if you wanted to see the news of the day's events you had to be home in time to watch the nightly news. Local news stations would give you a half an hour of what was going on around this area with a little weather and sports thrown in and then Walter Cronkite would tell you the way it was. Besides that you could wait until the next morning and read about it in the newspapers.
When cable television began its explosion in the 1980's the twenty-hour news channel was born. Ted Turner was the pioneer that brought us CNN and later Headline News Network and changed the way we saw news back then. At that time when we wanted to see what was going on in the world we could hear about it as it was happening. In 1986 CNN was the only network that was showing the launch of Space Shuttle Challenger as it exploded. When the United States started its bombing of Iraq after their invasion of Kuwait in 1990, for the first time in history we were able to see war actually unfold live on television.
It continued this way for a few years with CNN leading the way until other news organizations decided to get into the 24 hour business. MSNBC and Fox are a couple of the main competition that arose from our need to watch the world unfold before our eyes. Together they changed the way we watched our news again. The only problem with these channels is that they count on big news stories, usually controversies, to keep people watching. Throughout the 1990's things like Bill Clinton's impeachment and the OJ Simpson trial had people tuning in but would it be enough to hold our attention for long periods of time. In 2000 our attention was drawn to the controversy of the Presidential election and the resulting recount.
As we rolled over to a new Millennium we turned on our television sets and sat watching the smoke billowing from where the first plane had hit the World Trade Center. We continued to sit paralyzed as we saw the second plane strike the other tower. I personally sat for hours that day watching the news unfold and wondering what could possibly happen next.
Over the next few years technology began to take over and the way that news was gathered and broadcast began to change radically. Personal computers became as common as the television in most homes and today most everyone can access the internet from a portable devise small enough to carry with you anywhere. Add to that the ability to capture photos and video and just about any one can call themselves a “journalist”.
Now, I can get my news from just about anywhere. A couple of days ago I was cutting the grass when the verdict from the Casey Anthony murder trial was announced. Within minutes of the announcement I knew what the results of the verdict was. Moments later I was already starting to hear feedback and reaction via Twitter.
All of these advances have had a major impact on other media sources. As you know this newspaper has gone through some radical changes over the last few months. The combination of the former Evening News and Tribune into one newspaper covering both Floyd and Clark Counties and the recent decision to go to deliver by United States Postal service everyday. The Courier Journal has had several major staff cutback over the last couple of years. Just last month their parent company Gannett made more nationwide cutbacks including the loss of the Indiana Statehouse reporter.
As traditional media outlets are cut back and people look to other places to get information, it opens the door for less than reputable sources to begin to spin the news. Now anyone that wants to can sit at their kitchen table and make up what the news is. They can “report” whatever they would like without the usual standards that journalist were once held to. Many of these new age of “journalist” even hide behind their keyboards and report anonymously.
Over the last few years technology has moved faster than at anytime in human history. Much of the new technology we have only begun to utilize to its potential. The ability to spread news at an exponential rate, comes with a certain amount of responsibility. Just about anyone has the power to influence thousands of people almost instantly and we have an obligation to use that power wisely.
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