As newspapers are part of the first stage of media development, they have played a very large part in the development of local, regional, and national character of a people. They carry much information which is useful in our lives. In general, the media have five functions: to provide surveillance which may be either of a warning type or of useful information; to present interpretation of events to the public; to offer linkages between different types of events or situations; to transmit values to those using the media; and finally, to give a sense of entertainment and excitement through the media.
In high school, I had very few newspapers available to read. Such an absence often causes people not to develop this interest later in their lives. I did write regularly for a monthly school newspaper, called "Campus Chatter." Happily, in college, I took some courses in journalism. Because I was writing articles for this newspaper, I developed some interest in reading newspapers. In my first university teaching position in Buffalo, New York, . I wrote several articles for a weekly community newspaper. Also, in that setting, I was reading daily the Buffalo Evening News. Then I moved to a major university in the US Midwest, and subscribed both to the local newspaper and to one of America's major newspapers, The Louisville (Kentucky) Courier Journal. I began to read this paper with great enthusiasm as it aided me considerably in my own teaching. When I moved to Virginia to teach, I now had home delivery on a daily basis for one of the US' three or four best papers, The Washington Post. By this time, I was spending about 40--60 minutes a day reading the daily paper and 2-3 hours reading the Sunday paper. The Sunday paper often ran to 300 pages. Moving to Rochester New York, I now had regular access to America's paper of record, The New York Times. Because my students and I could buy the daily NYT newspaper through our student union at a great discount, I made the daily paper one of my course text books several times. Also, I was able to have the 300 page Sunday edition delivered to my home. Sunday afternoons were almost constantly organized around reading as much of the paper as interested me and as I could manage in about 3 hours. Before coming to China, I also read the weekly Washington Post Weekly newspaper and usually spent about one hour a week on this paper, while also reading two religiously oriented newspapers, and several weekly or monthly magazines. In China, I regularly read China Daily and also Twenty-First Century.
Reading the newspapers clearly has expanded my knowledge on many subjects and I have received much news from the newspapers, as well as magazines, the television, and the Internet. Parts of this knowledge typically gets passed on to my students every week in my classes. I hope always to continue to enjoy reading the newspaper as it makes me a more well rounded individual writer, and university professor.