A brief history of the media through political convention pins

I’ve written previously for Poynter about my fondness for covering the quadrennial Democratic and Republican conventions. Recently, I realized that some of my souvenirs from those conventions accidentally tell a story about the media’s evolution over the past three decades.

The souvenirs I’m referring to are pins, mostly the size of the average thumbnail. Despite their modest size, these trinkets tell a story of the media’s proximity to power, the ebb and flow of journalistic resources and the media pecking order. They tell a story of reporters’ camaraderie and a sense of shared community. But poignantly, over time, they also tell a story of media decline.

I first became aware of political convention pins in 1992, when I was covering my second convention — the Democratic confab at Madison Square Garden in New York City.