Perception.

I just finished watching State of Play, a movie centered on a reporter’s investigation into the death of a Congressman’s aide. The movie was great, but what I really found interesting was the focus that they placed on the dying newspaper.

In a world where news is instantaneous, people rely on websites and blogs to keep themselves in line with the latest news. The sad thing is that many who have spent their lives devoted to writing and delivering news to us are losing their jobs. I find it disheartening, because there is an element of rustic importance when it comes to holding a newspaper in your hand, smelling the pages, getting a bit of ink on your hands, and the rustling of the pages as you turn them. With a paper, your senses are enveloped; sight, smell, sight, touch. You could probably lick the paper if you really wanted to taste it I guess.

Remember when your parents asked you to get the paper from the lawn, or you sat by Dad as he flipped through the business section. The newspaper is part of us.

There is something to be said about the quality of news that has come to us through the decades, the in depth stories, the hard work that comes from finding the truth. I just hope that we do not lose that to an age where we trade quality for quantity. Frankly, I find reading newspapers “sexy.” Perhaps that’s not the term you’d typically use to describe newspaper-reading, but there’s something to be said about reading stories that bounce of the page at us.

Let’s bring sexy back.