The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Up until a couple of years ago, if you wanted to publish something that would be read by more than the few people, you had two choices. The first choice was to become a very good writer. You could practice the craft for years, beginning with small publications and then slowly work your way up. It didn't matter if you were writing novels or newspaper articles, you had to practice, work hard, and, best of all, know someone who would give you a break. Your second option was to have lots of money. If you had lots of money, you could simply buy a newspaper or publishing house. Then no matter how bad your writing was, people would be forced to read what you wrote when it turned up in their morning paper. Newspapers didn't travel that far so the publishers probably knew the same things we did, had the same perspectives, and looked at issues much the same way. But this has changed. Take four of my main online news sources. I surf through them several times a day looking for breaking news and to see what has surfaced over the course of the day. The first is the CBC. I am passionate about Canadian news and perspectives. I love the countrywide perspective they give and I also love the deep archives this site has. If you are looking for almost any news event that has happened in the last 70 years, CBC was probably there. From old photos and news stories, through video and audio archives, the CBC website probably has the information I'm looking for. Second is The New York Times. While I often disagree with American perspectives on the world, you cannot dispute the power, scope, and reach of the Times. Again, an amazingly deep site with everything from technology news to medical breakthroughs that I'd probably hear about in few other places. My third source of news is the BBC World website. Ever since I first traveled internationally, I fell in love with the BBC. They gather a lot of news from a lot of other sources that I probably would not even hear about without reading their site. They have a perspective that is different from ours and this brings a lot of news into this site that doesn't make it to North American sites. The last site I read for much of my news is one that is new and will be fairly controversial Ð the English site of Al-Jazeera. Made famous during the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Al-Jazeera has been called the Arab world's CNN. They have often been criticized by U.S. politicians for playing tape recordings made by people like Osama bin Laden and others, but again, like the BBC, I find that this site brings a lot of news together in one place and a perspective I don't get from Western sites. I lived in the Arab world for a few years and am still concerned about many of the small nations and cities of the Middle East and I just don't hear about them any other way. My interest in these four sources of news is in the differences. What makes the front page of the CBC page often doesn't even make it to the BBC. I am interested in what makes the news in different places around the globe and in the perspectives that the newsmakers in each place have. A story that manages to make the news in most of these sources can look very different. An Israeli incursion into the Palestinian territories looks very different from a U.S. perspective than it does from Al-Jazeera, of that you can be guaranteed. I'm free to make up my own mind about the events that make the news, but the Internet gives me the option of looking at things with different sets of eyes. ([email protected]) Tech Notes runs Mondays.
