From Manual Typewriter to the Internet – Journalism’s Journey

Jennifer in 1959. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Donovan.

How far journalism has come—from typewriters to word processing, internet tools, social media and beyond.  And I’ve seen it all.

When I fell in love with newspapering—as editor of my 7th grade newspaper in the 1950s—we wrote on manual typewriters. When I was in high school, the gift of a little portable typewriter of my own was such a thrill.  

Fast forward to my second job after college, writing for a small daily newspaper. The publisher lured me there with the promise of an ELECTRIC typewriter! If reporters made a typing error, we had to go back and retype. Back in the composing room, typesetters were still using clanking linotype machines to produce bars of lead type, placing the heavy lead bars by hand in columns on page forms. Paper proofs were printed from those pages and read for errors by copy editors.

I was an anomaly in those early newsrooms. There were very few women, and the ones there were wrote society columns and covered “women’s news” like sewing circles and church socials. I covered City Hall and the cops.

In the late 1970s, when word processors appeared on the scene, I was working for a slightly larger daily paper. The reporters all grumbled. “We’ll never be able to write on those things,” they said. But we had to learn to use the new tool, so we did. 

The clunky word processors were replaced by centralized word processing systems linked to each computer screen in the newsroom. By then, reporters were in love with the new technology. Instead of retyping a whole page, they could mark a misspelled word or a line that belonged somewhere else in the story and correct or move it with the click of a key. But they still had to print out their stories, paste the pages together and hand-carry them to the copy desk.

Then word processors were laid to rest, replaced in the 1990s by computer systems that required a large tower that stood next to a small monitor and keyboard. The mouse made its appearance, speeding up the writing and revising process. Microsoft Word replaced WordPerfect, which had required use of all kinds of function keys. The Internet arrived, lending a new and growing library of research resources. 

By the time the last newspaper I worked at, the Dallas Times Herald, went belly-up, the clunky computer towers had vanished too. The computer itself had been incorporated into the monitor and keyboard. Reporters were writing away on large screens with easy-to-use keyboards and mouse control, sending their stories to distant editors just by pressing a key.  They were using the Internet to research their stories, find sources and fact-check. By then, newspapers were printed by computer too. The linotypes had disappeared, and the huge roller-presses that produced the low, rumbling background music of every newsroom, were sold for scrap. 

Today, reporters use portable laptops, carrying them along to interviews and meetings, often writing their stories remotely. There are far more women than men in the newsroom, covering everything from crime to courts, from public protests to politics. I wouldn’t even recognize most newsrooms today. 

Now we can read the news literally as it's happening, on the little rectangular computers we all carry in our pockets or purses, on which we receive news and weather alerts, as well as doing email interviews and calling or texting sources. 

The technology behind producing and distributing the news is still evolving and undoubtedly will continue to evolve in ways we can’t even imagine today.

The journalism industry has changed too, and not necessarily in a good way. Family-run newspapers where the reporters and editors knew their community have been taken over by corporate conglomerates. Newspapers hire reporters fresh out of journalism schools from all over the nation and editors wherever they can find them. The people we rely on to report the local news often don’t know the community, its people, issues and concerns.  

How can we fix what went wrong with journalism? Here’s my prescription: 

• Communities: Develop alternative news sources, like the Copper Beacon. 

• Journalists: Stick to the facts—all the facts—and fact-check, fact check, fact check.

• Readers: Support your local newspaper or other community news source by subscribing, and become citizen journalists, alerting your news sources to important issues, projects and events in your community.

• Family-owned and community newspapers: hang in there. Don’t let the corporate media giants eat you up.

Welcome to the Brand New Copper Beacon: What We’re Doing and Why

Today marks the relaunch of a new and improved Copper Beacon. Let me tell you about its history, mission and plans for the future. 

A teleconference between the volunteer relaunch team: Josh Vissers, Laura Smyth, Jennifer Donovan, Juxta Sprague, and Lily Venable.

Just as there is no perfect person, there is no perfect media. We all, mostly, try our best. When I taught media studies, I would start each semester with a lesson on propaganda and faulty logic, because deceit, self-interest, and manipulation are as old as humankind. But so is seeking truth, helping community, and a need to communicate with each other. So, along with propaganda, I would talk (probably a lot) about personal bias—how to recognize it and move past it. One mistake we often make, both as media “consumers” and media “producers” is believing we are without bias. That’s not humanly possible. But recognizing our own biases, our own blind spots and prejudices, is not only possible, it is essential, both in a democracy and in a news outlet.

Joshua Vissers started this online news source, now called Copper Beacon, as an exercise in delivering local news to a rural community without the undue influence that can come from relying on advertising revenue.

(Read a short history of the publication here: https://www.copperbeacon.org/about-us).

It is the ideal of every journalist I have ever met not to be thwarted in what they cover and how it can be covered by the commercial necessities of their news outlet. Investigating stories, writing stories, editing stories, getting good visuals to help bring stories to life…all of this is expensive, and the tried-and-true model in American journalism has been advertising. Subscriptions in this model help, certainly, but primarily to give advertisers a sense of the readership they can reach if they pay for an expensive advertisement. The potential conflicts of interest are ever-present and obvious.

This publication has never sought or accepted advertising. We rely on subscriptions, though we now are seeking other local and national, non-commercial sources of funding. 

Copper Beacon has  been and continues to be hyper-local. We cover four counties: Baraga, Ontonogan, Houghton and Keweenaw. With the view that journalism is a community service and not a product, we value local knowledge. 

As I was working on this article in my Hancock office in late April, I decided to get out and enjoy the sunshine and clear my head. Walking down Quincy St. I found myself in the middle of the setup process for this year’s Puppy Parade. How perfect. I leave my office to clear my thoughts and immediately am immersed in an important and lovely community project. Students from Hancock High School were creating the route all along the sidewalk with chalk, leaving inspiring messages and colorful pawprints. The coordinator for the Puppy Parade, Rachel Lamppa from Copper Shores Community Health, chatted with me about the artwork the students were making and her passion for helping survivors of sexual violence. Officer Olsen was on hand, helping with the artwork and looking after the students. I had walked out of my head and into a community event outside my door. I encouraged the students to consider writing an article for the Copper Beacon about their experience on this project. Citizen journalism recruitment on the fly.

Victim advocate Rachel Lamppa with Hancock Police Officer Olsen at the Copper Shores Puppy Parade.

Rather than attempting to cover the entire U.P., Copper Beacon chose a deeper focus on truly local issues, and our plan is to grow through the development of local journalists and citizen journalists. 

One big accomplishment that the publication has achieved so far is obtaining a 501(c)3 status. Being a non-profit will help us with our mission: Copper Beacon will deliver high-quality journalism featuring diverse voices and deep research to the residents of Houghton County and the surrounding area. With ethics, accessibility, and media education held as core values, we will lead the way for the modernization of news production in the Upper Peninsula.

Yes, that’s a big mission, but what’s the point in a small one? Together, we don’t need to do this instantly but rather can build on past achievements and develop new local talent. We have a dedicated local board to help guide the way. We are actively seeking input from residents for stories that could use greater coverage, and we will be training local writers to take a leap into this important project: local news.

We’re currently an all-volunteer staff, although freelance writers are paid contributors, but one of the goals we have as a non-profit is to develop foundational funding sources from both inside and outside the region that will allow us to develop more opportunities for paid writers and also to engage and educate local communities on the importance of local news coverage. Money coming into our non-profit organization brings funds into the local economy rather than sending money out of the area through advertising revenue to a national or international corporate parent company. As Joshua said to me in a recent phone conversation, corporate news ownership is “a straw for sucking money out of the community.” And that straw seems to get bigger with each passing day. 

So, moving forward, we will keep the community events calendar going on a weekly basis along with smaller news items as they arise. The primary change will be to take a monthly deep dive into one specific topic of importance in the community and cover it in-depth. Look for story topics to be announced in the next few weeks and contact the editor if you would like more information about writing for (or learning to write for) the Copper Beacon. We’re excited about the future of this news outlet. Taking my cue from the students who were enthusiastically chalking up Quincy St. before the parade, I can tell you that we do this work with a deep commitment to the well-being of the whole community, and also an appreciation of good chalk. 

Edit: This article was corrected for typos after posting. “Office” was changed to Officer and “conversion” changed to “conversation”.

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