When I first started as a journalist, I was still in college; actually junior college. In those days, computers were just becoming a part of publishing. We as newspaper staff had to gather the information and write the articles that were then put into the computer for layout and printing.
My first job at “The Corsair” was to take the press releases and write one inch column write-ups on whatever the event was. Everyone else hated the job; I was overjoyed at the opportunity to be a part of the staff.
New school, new paper, we typed our own stories into the computer and the editor took it from there.
Fast forward some 30 years, print newspapers are getting harder and harder to find and most journalistic endeavours can be found online.
I have my own website and nearly everything is down via my laptop. Only when I cover a live event does the format change. Funny, I spend most of my time typing instead of writing; but I still prefer to write and when I do cover a live event or conduct an interview, I do write out the article and then type it into the computer.
For me, writing as opposed to typing has a flow all its own. When I am “in the groove”, it is almost as if the words go from my brain, down my arm, and out of the pen onto the paper. Typing seems to require more thinking…and feels like it takes longer. I think that is the biggest change over the past 30 plus years…we used to write; now we type.
Another big change is photography. When I started, photographs were taken with film and had to be developed and later scanned into the computer to be placed with the articles. These days we have digital photography and it is much easier to add photos to an article. Also as a photographer there is no worry of wasting film on a bad shot or shots that don’t get used. With digital photos, there really is no waste…and the way I take photos, it’s a good thing. 🙂 During a concert, I can take hundreds…yes, hundreds…of photos. Sometimes it takes that many to get some good shots because musicians move around a great deal.
Publishing has grown by leaps and bounds since the days of Guttenberg and the very first printing press; but there have been even bigger leaps in bounds since the advent of online publishing.