Can the printed word survive in tech world of instant news?

Country Living with Francis Farragher

I suppose that I am from an era where newspapers were always part of the weekly literary diet in our house. As a child the Tuam Herald could never be missed; the Connacht Tribune would have been a more intermittent purchase; while my father had a little penchant for the Evening Herald during the 1960s when it often opted for the quirkier type of news items.

There used to be talk of the odd heathen here and there who had access to The News of the World and very occasionally a second-hand copy of that publication would find its way into our kitchen, hidden away but not well enough to avoid the curious eyes of a 10-year-old on the verge of prurience.

The News of the World did have coverage of all the big soccer matches across the water but of course all the saucy stuff was contained in the front and inside pages where the low morals and the fetish ways of our UK cousins were exposed in ‘glorious’ black and white.

Now and then, there was even talk of the local Parish Priest having got word of this ‘rag’ being sent by post to a particular house and having a ‘little chat’ with the purchaser about the moral error of his ways. Maybe it was the postman who ‘spilled the beans’ but at least in one instance, word had it, that the clerical intervention did not work and was robustly fended off.

One way or another since the time of the French Revolution (and before), newspapers – or the Fourth Estate – have been part of our lives, and for some of us, who ply our trade in the printed word – and made a half-decent living out of it – there are of course growing concerns over whether newspapers can survive the technology avalanche of instant news, information and images.

Old-fogies like myself would like to believe that newspapers can survive into the future, and when I have the time, there is nothing more I enjoy than sitting down and enjoying reading a good story, a decent gripe, a column that stirs the senses, or maybe a descriptive piece about a great sporting occasion.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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