April 7 – International Snailpapers Day

nPostednon April 7, 2015

nWhatnare snailpapers?

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nI’mnpretty sure you are picturing some sort of sticky papers you put outnaround your strawberry plants, to protect the fruit YOU want to eatnfrom snails…right?

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Butn“snailpapers” are just newspapers – a way of getting news thenold fashioned way.

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nThensllllloooooowww way. People get their news from newspapers around 12nhours late, according to the former newspaperman and current bloggernwho created this special day.

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nHence,nsnailpapers. (Just like the phrase “snail mail.”)

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Newsngets to us faster through radio, television, twitter, phone alerts,nand the internet than it possibly could through newspapers.nJournalists have to phone or otherwise wire in their stories to thennewspaper, and then the paper has to edit the story, set the type,nprint and assemble the newspaper, and then distribute it (a stepnthat, in fact, usually entails multiple steps before the newspaper isnin the hands of the reader).

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nWhereasnwith the phone alert, twitter, and internet, that first step -nsomeone phoning/wiring the story – can be the ONLY step!

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nSo…whynwould anybody choose slow?

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First,nthere are not really easy ways to find out some categories of localnnews, in some communities, other than the local paper. If you want tonget up on Saturday morning, for example, and check the scores of thenFriday-night football games from all three of your town’s highnschools, the local paper is often the best bet.

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nAnd if you want morenthan the box scores of local sporting events – articles describingnthe high points of the game, photos – again, the town newspapernmight be the easiest source.
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Second,nsome people love the tactile experience of paging through a newspapernover breakfast and coffee or tea.

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nThird,nsome sorts of news stories don’t have to be reported in ansplit-second fashion. They might be carefully investigated reportsnthat were fact checked by two people other than the writers; afternjournalists create such a story over the course of days, weeks, orneven months, putting them out in newspapers or magazines is as validnas putting them out on the internet.

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But,nof course, if newspapers and magazines cannot afford to continue asnprinted-paper artifacts, because of plummeting subscriptions andndrastically reduced advertising, then their online forms willneventually be the only forms.

nFornnow, today, there still ARE printed newspapers – so go out and buynone in order to celebrate Snailpapers Day!

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nFindn out the high-tech way that newspapers are printed these days byn watching this video.

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n Seen if your family has saved any old newspaper clippings. Maybe one ofn your parents has a scrapbook of his or her childhoodn competitions…or someone has save big-time headlines such as then attack on Pearl Harbor or 9-11.

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n Findn out how you can access old newspaper articles here. Theyn might come in handy while doing research on a historical event or onn your own family tree. Or you can just browse around and comparen different newspaper’s coverage of important events.

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