In an era of the Internet, electronic media and more, it is sometimes easy to forget the binding influence of a daily newspaper on a community.

It's human nature to want to be in the know, to understand what is happening in one's community and the world around you.

Hawai'i has been particularly blessed in this regard. It has a robust history of active journalism and publication that would be the envy of many places around the world.

From the early post-missionary days when the Hawaiian language press was particularly active, through the many ethnic and non-English publications that have emerged and flourished, Hawai'i is a place where the "news" has been a vital part of our social fabric.

Until fairly recently, that "news" function meant the written word, printed, published and distributed to an eager (and very literate) public.

And, with no false modesty, it must be said that The Ho-nolulu Advertiser (born 150 years ago this weekend as the Pacific Commercial Advertiser) has been a major player in that effort.

For 150 years, The Advertiser has been telling Hawai'i's story to the residents of these Islands. There have been notable successes as well as a few stumbles over those years. But that's inevitable in the daily rush to produce what is often called "the first draft of history."

George Chaplin, editor of The Advertiser from the dramatic statehood year of 1959 through 1986, admits in his book "Presstime in Paradise" that The Advertiser did not always drape itself in glory as it sought to tell Hawai'i's story.

During the days when many community leaders feared that the Asian (or "Oriental," as it was called in the day) population would come to dominate the Islands, The Advertiser fretted along.

Much of that coverage seems both wrong-headed and perhaps even racist from a contemporary perspective.

Again, when the labor movement in Hawai'i was on the rise, The Advertiser was firmly anti-labor, or more correctly, anti-union organizing. And it went along with the "Red scare hysteria" of the 1950s.

But even in those days, it must be said that The Advertiser reflected its community and was deeply immersed in the history and life of these Islands. It was telling a tale that amazed, entranced and captured the imagination of the rest of the world.

And from its earliest days to the present, The Advertiser has often been in the forefront of the effort for social justice and economic stability. Founder Henry Whitney, for instance, was the first to call for plantation owners to stop the contract labor practice in the 1880s. He also helped convince King Lunalilo to lease Pearl Harbor to the United States as a consideration for a (sugar) reciprocity treaty, forever changing the economic and social fabric of Hawai'i.

As that fabric continues to change and evolve, The Advertiser will remain engaged in that story, with all its color, its diversity and its drama. The format will likely change, but it's a good bet The Honolulu Advertiser will still be telling that amazing story 150 years from now.