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Opinion

The incomparable serendipity of reading the newspaper

Broadcast media "push" their truncated version of events and internet users "pull" news that confirms their biases. Only the newspaper gives readers depth, surprise and the challenge of learning.

People frequently comment on the stack of newspapers I read each morning while having breakfast at a local cafe. Those in my generation speak of days gone by when everyone read their local newspapers. Younger people are puzzled why I don't just search for news on my cellphone. But I enjoy newspapers much the same way an oenophile compares, contrasts and savors wines. I playfully explain that I buy two daily newspapers because I am addicted to them and will continue to buy them until I read the last newspaper ever published.

Though my parents subscribed to two local newspapers, the Dallas Times Herald and the Garland Daily News, I did not acquire an appreciation of newspapers until I enrolled in college. My freshman year at Annapolis, we plebes were required to subscribe to a major newspaper and read two articles each morning. We had to choose one article from the front page and one from the sports page and be able to summarize and discuss those anytime during the day.

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Since acquiring a newspaper reading habit, I have taken the local newspaper and usually The Wall Street Journal wherever I have lived. I have lived in Baltimore-Washington, Houston, Dallas, Seattle, Hartford, Long Beach, Savannah, Atlanta and Tel Aviv, so I have some perspective on the reporting and editorial practices of many different newspapers. A comparison of newspapers would require another article. For now, I will only say that The Dallas Morning News' editorial positions are conservative compared with most major U.S. newspapers.

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Broadsheet newspapers with comprehensive local, state and national coverage are unique in their interaction with the news consumer. Other media are short, pulsed, one-way communications. Television and radio news "push" pre-selected content to viewers. People who go to the internet for news "pull" their data from sources that share their biases. In these unilateral pulses, content is limited. There are few opportunities for serendipitous discovery or expansive learning.

Broadsheet newspaper readers interact with a newspaper in a manner more akin to reading a mystery novel. As pages are read, new and often unexpected information is imparted. For the intellectually curious, this leads to questions that require yet more information to answer. Newspaper readers don't just pull information they have pre-selected. They find and interpret new information that they both like and dislike, agree and disagree with. Newspaper articles are not just sound bites but are stories told with much greater detail than in television news.

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When newspapers are read properly, technology does not kill them but rather supplements their content. The proper way to read a newspaper is over a kitchen or restaurant table with a smartphone or a laptop immediately accessible. Newspaper articles are essentially short stories. The smartphone is a combined dictionary, encyclopedia and atlas to look up supporting information about the people, places and history referenced in the articles.

Headlines are descriptive outlines for the content of the articles. One should read all the headlines on every page. The first and concluding paragraphs should be read of articles in which you have an interest but do not desire details. Articles of interest where you think details are important should be read in their entirety.

For years I have hoped some deep-pocketed entrepreneur would open a chain of cafes where all the tables are actually interactive computer screens. These would allow a virtual full-size newspaper to be displayed, but it would also integrate the look-up capability of a smartphone. That would be the broadsheet newspaper experience without the publishing costs of paper and ink. This tabletop newspaper technology could be deployed in schools and libraries as a means to encourage students to engage world events without the built-in push-pull biases inherent in other media.

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I believe the key to sustaining newspapers for the long term is for schools to use them as teaching aids, as we did in university-level officer training. Admittedly, this partnership of newspaper and schools has to be carefully monitored to assure newspaper owners are given no inappropriate business advantages. However, leading people to the media is acceptable in the same way that people are led to the coffeepot or learn to appreciate wines. The taste is acquired, but you thank whatever gods you worship that someone led you to try.

And whichever paper is the very last one through the presses, I look forward to reading it with gusto and my morning coffee.

Timothy Daniel is a retired aerospace engineering manager and a member of the World Affairs Council of DFW. Email: timohacker@msn.com

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