People of a certain age remember the thud of a newspaper tossed by a paperboy or (occasionally) papergirl from their bicycle up onto the porch or front steps, the rustle of pages as a parent absorbed the morning newspaper with their steaming cup of coffee, and the admonition,  “Quiet, can’t you see I’m reading the newspaper?”   

 

Today print media is in trouble.  About 40% of Americans still read a daily newspaper and that number is both ageing and shrinking.  Sixty six percent of Americans get their news from television, 34% get news from radio, and a rapidly growing 31% get their news online.    Innovative news communication vehicles are proliferating rapidly, yet people question how they will continue to access local news and informed opinions without print media.

 

Join us at Windsor Historical Society  on Thursday, April 23rd from

7:30 to 9:00 p.m. to hear more from a  panel of local experts including Naedine Hazell (Hartford Courant Online), Rich Hanley (Assistant Professor of Journalism, Quinnipiac University) Kevin Lamkins (RadioActive and Hartford Independent Media Collective) Colin McEnroe (Hartford Courant columnist), Chris Morrill (GlobalPost)  and Christine Stuart  (CT. News Junkie).   The panelists will talk about the historic and continuing importance of our nation’s free press, mistakes made, the economics of news distribution, evolving news communication vehicles, and challenges and opportunities ahead.  Cost for the program is $6 adults, $5 for seniors and students, and $4 for WHS members.  Parking is available in the Windsor Discovery Center and First Church parking lots, and around Palisado Green. 

 

Print media in this country has long been associated with democracy and civic engagement; the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits Congress from making laws that infringe on (among other things) the freedom of the press. Author E. B. White of Charlotte’s Web fame writing for the New Yorker Magazine December 12, 1953 about a newspaper strike, likened the act of reading a newspaper at breakfast to “munching stale discouragement along with fresh toast.”   “Nothing much happens from day to day.” White acknowledged.  “Public servants serve, felons act feloniously, demagogues croak their froggy tunes, echo answers echo (if it can get network time), and life goes on in its familiar pattern.  But city dwellers without newspapers breathe an ominous air, as though the smog were descending.  Liberty is not secure.  Democracy does not thrive unassisted.  And so, for love of these, we all swallow our bulletins at breakfast along with our marmalade.”