Picture of the Everett Sound Publishing Press
Viewpoint by Ricky Talbot
Many people question how long the printing press is going to survive in a technical era.
Even with technology increases, there are still those out there who want to know the news.
“People like their news in about 1,000 different ways and newspapers will become much more like multimedia news groups rather than the prototypical print publications,” explains Managing Editor of the Sequim Gazette, Michael Dashiell.
The first printing press is attributed to Johannes Gutenberg.
Although his press isn’t the one we use today, his work started an intellectual revolution that made it possible to get written language into the hands of an ordinary layman.
Once people had the opportunity to learn how to read, information could be passed from one person to the next in record time.
Although texting and email is much faster than sending in a document to be printed, it still holds its value.
The printing press still speaks to the informed citizenry, whether it be through printing a book, or sharing the news.
The press allows readers knowledge of events they would never know about otherwise, and it connects them to the world they live in.
“As I meet more people and share their stories, it draws me closer with humanity as a whole — there’s something to that, something worthwhile,” Dashiell says.
The Press still has value today, and for now, it still prints the newspaper.
The newspaper not only tells people what is going on in the world, it also tells people what is going on in their own hometowns. It prints people’s joys and sadness. It tells of powers that are rising, and those that are on the brink of collapse.
The First Amendment allows people to have freedom of the press, but a good reporter lives by a code that does not misuse their Constitutional right.
The Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics says that “Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist’s credibility.”
When this code of ethics is adhered to by a good reporters, this is what makes the newspaper a reliable source of news.