Local merchant Jean Moffatt has been in the journalism and printing industry in Seminole forover 50 years. She a former journalism teacher and she and her husband own Seminole Office Supply.
WW: How has technology changed from when you taught journalism at SHS?
Moffatt: I came here in 1968 and worked for the Sentinel for four years. Then I came to Seminole High School in 1972. They had just gone to cold type. Before that, they were on hot type, which was called letter press. Then we changed to hot press which is what we use now. We used a compugraphic which set the type. We made half tones of the pictures which broke up black and white into gray tones. We had no colors. In yearbook, we could only do the end sheets in color. We got computers in 1989. The first real computers we got to use had a half meg of memory. We finally got digital cameras and more color. We had a darkroom, and we developed our pictures in black and white. If we wanted color pictures, we sent them to WalMart.
WW: What are the advantages of new technology?
Moffatt: It’s instantaneous. It’s faster, cheaper, better quality, easier, more accessible. The colors are just wonderful. I wouldn’t say the quality of journalism is better, but the way you out put it is better. You get to do so much more of it yourself. The immediacy of it is so much faster.
WW: What are the disadvantages of new technology?
Moffatt: I don’t see many disadvantages, except for paparazzi. It’s so accessible that anyone can fancy himself a journalist. They aren’t trained like the ones who were when it was a more exclusive club. They have no regard for privacy.
WW: What did you do without cellphones in case of an emergency?
Moffatt: You just had to go find someone if something happened. You could use pay phones or flag someone down.