Looking back: news

As I went upstairs to my computer this morning I thought about news and how I know about what is going on in the world.

My first choice is the Internet and the 2nd is the television. I listen to the radio very seldom and a printed newspaper has not existed in my house for a long time. The exception is when my sister visits and I remember my mom liking to read a newspaper too when she came to visit.

So where did my mom  get her news from?

She listened to the radio a lot. She watched television a lot. She read the newspaper as long as I could remember.

The radio was often on in her bedroom. She had it on in the kitchen in the morning.

Going back another generation to my mom’s mom who was born in 1885 in Middlesborough near Durham in England. Both radio and television were a long time away.

I checked for a local newspaper in Durham. There is the Northern Echo and it did exist in 1885.

I expect my mom’s mom was literate and did read the newspaper - she was a kindergarten teacher.