One year after the horrific slaughter and kidnapping you-know-where, I’m posting again this drawing1 of a page in The Times.
In the last couple of days, I’ve attempted to share my enthusiasm for print newspapers: I posted about the Financial Times on Saturday, and on Sunday I posted about The Observer.
This story in The Times (of London) gave me a tiny uplift during this past year of dreadful news.
As it happens, I know one of the people pictured. I had no idea her face was going to appear in my print newspaper. I hope that, even if you don’t know anybody in this picture, you might find the story itself encouraging.
Over the last 12 months I’ve witnessed a devastating unfolding of straightforward, unconcealed antisemitism and / or Islamophobia, including FROM PEOPLE I KNOW.
I can find no way to explain this.
Well, there is one way. I believe that social media (particularly so-called X) has made things worse.
Some people I know, who get all their news there, have simply gone bonkers.
I know that print journalism too can get things wrong, badly wrong. I know that it will be filled with a lot I won’t care about, as well as ideas, facts and opinions I can’t stand.
But it’s solid. It’s on the table for me to flick back through, and argue with (even if only in my own head). I can scribble on it. I can crumple it up and hurl it in the bin.
I can never engage with digital media in the same way.
Print journalism: use it or lose it.
1 I like drawing things. It helps me to feel immersed, to really contemplate something.
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