I wrote last week about the history of journalism, and its technologies, prior to the introduction of the World Wide Web.
In this connection I have come across a fascinating quote from Ben Bagdikian, who was following precisely this subject in real time. In a 1973 article for the Columbia Journalism Review, Bagdikian wrote about the new doohickies on which reporters were writing their stories in the most advanced city rooms. His breathless prose is amusing from this distance.
I call them "dookickies" because the names were in flux. The phrase "word processor" would eventually stick for machines dedicated to textual purposes such as reporters and editors would employ. Further on, of course, it became the name of a class of computer software, but that was distant yet. Again, the following passage comes from 1973.
As he types, the letters appear on the screen. If he wishes to delete or add to a line he has typed, he uses a set of command keys to move a cursor -- a bright oblong of light -- over the place he wishes to alter, types in the change, and the screen shows these and automatically makes room for the additions or closes up deletions.
Wow. I love the tone of an anthropologist reporting on the habits of a newly discovered tribe in the thickest forests of New Guinea. And I'd also like to know how I can modify my system to give myself an oblong cursor.
An "oblong," by the way, is a racetrack shape somewhere between an oval and a rectangle. You see an example above.
Delightful! In 1973, I had not a clue of any of this. I suspect I was not alone in that ignorance. Much later (I was in my fifties), I could not have made a living, doing what I did, had I resisted learning what everyone else was learning. My employer, having continuously updated job descriptions, made certain employees would have no choice but to fall in line with progress, if they expected to pursue careers.
ReplyDelete