Primary 6 & 7 Longstone P S Pupils
On Wednesday 18th November Longstone P6 and P7 pupils made a visit to the Ballymena Times newspaper office. They had arranged to interview the Times Editor Mr Dessie Blackadder.
Mr Blackadder took us into his office and began by telling us a little about the history of the Ballymena Times We learned that it was founded in 1855 and was originally called the Ballymena Observer. We had the opportunity of looking at a paper from 1918 which was full of writing and advertisements and had no photos. Compared to today’s paper it looked extremely uninteresting. Mr Blackadder informed us that the reporters in those days had a more difficult job than reporters today because they had to paint pictures with the words they used since there were so few photos in the newspapers
Ballymena Observer 1918
Mr Blackadder explained to us how his job has changed since he began working for the paper. Reporters used to take all their notes in shorthand. They then typed their reports using a typewriter. These reports were printed on huge sheets of paper. The editor’s job, was to cut out the pieces of writing with a scalpel, that were to be included in the finished paper and place them on a sticky sheet of paper. He explained this is where the term cut and paste in computers originated.
This page was then taken to a room where a camera took a picture of the finished article. Nowadays the papers are printed in Portadown and everything is done by computer. Reporters can record what they want to write on voice recorders no need for shorthand.
One of the pupils asked Mr Blackadder what qualifications you need to be a reporter. He answered by saying what ever job you do, you need to work hard at it. You need to be able to ask questions politely and clearly and then listen carefully to answers you are given. English is a very important subject to study at school and university. When a reporter is in court reporting on the cases there, he still needs to take his notes in shorthand, so this still part of a journalists training. He demonstrated how to write in shorthand for us. It looked really complicated.
One of our pupils asked Mr Blackadder if his job was fun. He answered by saying “I have good days and bad days as well! I have deadlines to meet every day as the paper has to be sent completed before 3:00 pm on Monday for publishing. On the other hand I have had many opportunities to travel around the world as part of my job”
Ballymena Times Website
Mr Blackadder then explained how the way people receive the news has changed with the development of technology over the years.
The first newspapers were huge and printed in broadsheet fashion. These papers progressed to the smaller compact papers we have today. Most papers have their own website nowadays as computers are part of everyone’s daily life. He predicted that before long people will be able to get all the information they will ever need on their mobile phone.
At the end of the morning we thanked Mr Blackadder for taking time out from his very demanding job as editor to give us such an interesting and enjoyable visit.
Reported By P6 & P7 Longstone Ps
