Vlad Jecan

The power of the press is indisputable, especially in wartime. It has become general knowledge that the outcome of the Vietnam War was heavily influenced by correspondents who went beyond military issues and reported the tragic reality of a confusing war. War reporting existed in one way or another since the first group of primitive men tried to kill another group. In fact, the first “reported” battle is that of Kadesh in 1274 BC, when Ramesses II fought the Hittite Empire. The Pharaoh ordered inscriptions detailing the battle on temples in Abydos, Luxor and Karnak[1]. However, highly propagandistic, the hieroglyphs do not account the battle in its full extent. Nor do Caesar’s writings twelve centuries later when he narrates his attept to invade Britain. Continue reading →

Hold the Front Page wrote:

Mark Gale had been a journalist on the Haywards Heath-based Mid Sussex Times for no fewer than 60 years.

He loved his job as the paper’s music and theatre critic so much he continued to work for nothing following his retirement, coming into the office for two days a week.

“His writing should have earned him a job on the nationals but he was not ambitious and loved his job here so much he never moved on,” said a colleague.

60 years of writing for a single newspaper, isn’t it amazing? This probably takes a lot of commitment, loyalty and modesty. It is also shocking because most journalists migrate from a paper to another due to various reasons or write for multiple publications in the same time.

At the 2006 Nieman conference themed “Newspaper’s Survival” at Harvard University, editors, print and online journalists have discussed the future of newspapers and traditional newsrooms. Almost all speakers have started their presentation with the following statement: newspapers are in big trouble. Indeed, it is known that that print has lost considerable terrain due to the rise of the Internet. However, this may be the most serious crisis newspapers find themselves in, but it is not the first. In the 60s “the television began eroding their audience”[1].

Nevertheless, newspapers have survived. Back then, original journalistic genres have emerged and offered the audience a complete new experience. For example, the introduction of the factual fiction current, better known as narrative journalism, gave newspaper readers a whole new experience. Thanks to the fine writings of innovators like Martha Gellhorn, Truman Capote and others, readers have successfully received the new in news reporting. In other words, and to put it short, print journalism has adapted to the new.

Continue reading →