Editorial: Appearing in print is record for history

The value of newsprint, of something that can be held, and cut out for the scrapbook, still remains. Photo / NZME.

An old soldier calls by the Wairarapa Times-Age, armed with paperwork, and requests a photograph, for the record, of himself beside an ancestor's gravestone, to note 50 years since his military service.

A mother rings the Times-Age, saying her daughter was upset because she had been (rightfully) expecting to appear among the Santa Parade photos, after the photographer made a big deal of her, but it hadn't appeared.

The two situations make me reflect on the endorsement a newspaper gives to a person, and the acknowledgement of their efforts as a matter of record.

The concept pleases me because it demonstrates that newspaper media, as a medium of independent praise, is value.

In the first instance, the urge to be recorded, for your name to be remembered, was especially strong in the veteran, Cyril Matiaha. Not everyone feels the urge to Google-search their name and gloat at the number of times it comes up, but it is a bit of a hit when someone dies and nothing really surfaces during an internet search.

To have your name published is like a physical marker - some insurance that you won't be forgotten.

In the instance of a youngster appearing in the paper, it's a form of praise (provided it's a favourable context) wholly independent from the praise received from parents.

The value of newsprint, of something that can be held, and cut out for the scrapbook, still remains. It is why I try to say yes because praiseworthy youngsters are a newspaper's bread and butter.

It is yet another message to readers that while planes might be crashing into the sea in the Indian Ocean, we still have normality in our communities, with youngsters doing good.