The Best of Times (Gwen Moritz Editor's Note)

A young journalist of my acquaintance jokingly complained on Facebook about a technological failure at her office: “Phones and internet are down at work. How were people reporters before there was an internet? How did they tweet gifs?” My response: “Gather around, kiddies, and I’ll tell you a story about reporting in the days before social media, before the internet, before email, even before fax machines!” It was 35 years ago this week that I graduated from Harding University with a B.A. in journalism. Almost exactly half of my subsequent career, 17 years and nine months, have been spent as editor of this publication, a plot twist that I would have dismissed as absurd in 1982. By the time I arrived in the Arkansas Business newsroom in the summer of 1999, there were already young reporters who were internet-dependent. If they couldn’t find some fact on a company’s first-generation website, they were at a loss as to how to proceed. It was my first taste of generational clash in the workplace — at least from the older-manager side of the conflict. For Pete’s sake, pick up the phone! Since then, I’ve become as technologically dependent as anyone, although texting to me is still awkward and utilitarian rather than second nature as it is to my millennial sons and co-workers. It’s one of the things I envy about the “digital natives,” although I can certainly see the perils of trying to conduct life on a c...
Source: Arkansas Business - Health Care - Category: American Health Source Type: news