The decline of newsagents

Newspapers and magazines can be used to enhance literacy skills but also provide students with information that they can apply in any subject. Reading newspapers while I was at school helped me to relate what I was learning in the classroom to current events and vice versa, and I believe that this helped me do well academically in the classroom. 

Sadly a major source of newspapers and magazines - the newsagent has fallen to store closures. The pace of closures has accelerated further in recent years. 

Newsagents now compete with supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations for the sale of newspapers and magazines and big-box retailers such as Officeworks, BigW, Target and Kmart for stationery.

Even lottery sales cannot escape competition. In NSW, it is possible to purchase lottery tickets online or in person at a convenience store or petrol station, despite the "rivers of gold" that lottery sales bring to the agent. 

Newspaper publishers have taken over the home delivery of newspapers, which in decades past provided income for newsagents. You could either have home delivery organised through the publisher (paid the newsagent commission per newspaper delivered) or you could arrange directly with the newsagent for home delivery with the delivery fee added to the cover price of the newspaper.

Closures mean that a source of information is being taken away from us and along with a source of reading material, but also the control how of how we acquire and maintain a newspaper and magazine collection within a school.

The decline of newsagencies, along with my interest in reading newspapers and magazines, has motivated me to explore this. 

After the holidays, I am going to reflect on their decline and what it means for us in terms of promoting reading.

Stop Reading the News by Rolf Dobelli

I confess to being a news nut. I recall watching the news each night as a six year old, even if I didn't completely understand what the content was about. It may have been years before I realised that I was actually a witness to history if I see or read an item years later. I enjoyed reading newspapers as a seven year old, even if it was just the weather page but just seeing pages loaded with lots of words and pictures. It made me feel grown up. 

Recently, I read Stop Reading the News by Rolf Dobelli and his main argument is that watching, reading, or listening to the news is harmful to a person and impacts our personal wellbeing. He goes as far as arguing that people are less likely to concentrate.

In addition, he argued that the content we view is pointless and that if its important, we will hear about it. The news is irrelevant.

He also suggested that in building our knowledge and understanding in the world, that we read on topics that interest us and read deeply into it. We should specialise our knowledge on a small range of fields.

I can see his point, particularly when it comes to reading deeply into a topic and as an educator, I need to encourage students to read widely and deeply on a topic.

But I have concerns about having to not watch, read or listen to the news, particularly in an educational context because watching the nightly news, reading a daily newspaper or reading a magazine helps us to make connections between the theory and application of knowledge. 

My best subject in the HSC in 2003 was Legal Studies. By watching the news and reading the newspaper each day, I was exposed to how the law was being applied. I kept folders of newspaper clippings from court cases or legislation being debated in our State and Federal Parliaments. I would be encouraging students in 2022 to do the same.

I think we as a species are wired to be curious about the world and its happenings but also to be able to share with others what is going on the world.

But if it was a takeaway note for me, maybe we need to slow our approach to how we view the news. For example, I should try and focus on longer articles instead of shorter articles. Fortuantely, I still subscribe to printed newspapers. The digital replica is the lazy way out unless on a ery crowded train. I notice in a printed sense, I abosrb the news more slowly but at the same time immerse myself with the content. 

We should not fear if we miss the nightly news on television or not have enough time to read it the next day. 

The need to read for pleasure

The Weekend Australian recently published an article by Rebecca Urban on recent comments by the headmaster of the SHORE school in Sydney - Tim Wright in a school newsletter.

He was concerned that boys were too dependent on social media and online news and that it could impact on their intellectual development.

Also, he has challenged the boys to read better quality books and challenge themselves in their reading.

I agree in particular with this statement:

“Reading develops your imagin­ation, emotional skills and reasoning power. If I am a reader and I have chosen my reading wisely I will see through simplistic slogans, facile arguments and tinsel values. I will understand more completely the perspectives of other people and I will not believe in unidimensional solutions­ to life’s problems.”

I really believe that you can get great insights into the state of our world or how others see the world. I for one have believed that literary works have an underlying message that an author embeds about the world. Bear in mind that great literary works have affected historical change.

For example, Charles Dickens through his novels highlighted the atrocious conditions that workers were subjected to in 19th century Britain. That would influence improvements in working conditions and has helped each of us work in safe workplaces today.

Many teen fiction novels today are based on real-life experiences. One can gain a real understanding of the issues facing teenagers by reading the novels. In fact, they have led to a public debate on the issues themselves. This is great for the progress of society

As there is a firewall for access to The Australian online, click here to view a pdf copy of the article.

Blur by Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel

There is a book I'm going to recommend not just to Teacher Librarians but to everyone because of its relevance.

It is: Blur: How to Know What's True In The Age of Information Overload by Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel.

Why? In this age of 24 hour news cycles, abundance of information in many formats and differing views, it is so important that we take time to examine the information that is presented to us.

Society is fast paced and people want to get their information quickly. Those involved in getting the information like journalists are also required to meet tight deadlines.

The book encourages us to be more critical about we see, read and view. It encourages us to determine if the information fulfills its purpose. Does it inform us? Does it answer the questions that we as the viewer are seeking. Is there truth in the item? Is the information accurate?

Do we get the full story which is balanced? Do we get detailed information? Was it well researched?

Even characterisation is looked at. Some journalists especially on TV like to assume roles of characters in order to get points across and we need to see how that impacts on the information we get from the story.

The two part telemovie Power Games (Nine Network Australia, 2013) allowed me to reflect on this particularly Sir Frank Packer's insistence that his Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph favour the Liberal Party and be anti communist when it was part of Consolidated Press (the paper joined News Limited in 1972). There was also the battle between the same paper and the now defunct newspaper The Daily Mirror operated by Rupert Murdoch in advocating for candidates for the Australian Prime Minister ship following the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt in 1967.

Would a biased approach to an event be fair? For someone like me, its not. I want to hear all sides of a story, not one. Both Packer and Murdoch went for one side by focusing on a particular candidate. Packer choose William McMahon because he was a personal friend while Murdoch supported John Gorton. If I was around in that time, I want to find out about both contenders and find out why they are suited to the job; like I would in the current battle for the Labor Party Leadership between Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese. I also think bias leads to distortion of the truth as well, not good.

I find its similar to the approach that historians undertake in historical research where they need to assess a source for its usefulness and reliability as part of their research. This includes the fundamental questions of any investigation - Who, What,Whee, When, Why and How? If we can have this information, then we can determine if there is truth in what we see, view, read and listen.