Journalism class does the time warp

Found this on Romanesko. Interesting idea, and hopefully it gave the J-students a bit more appreciation for the tools they have at their disposal:

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/141039/college-journalists-try-publishing-one-issue-without-computers/

Students at Florida Atlantic University are putting out their final summer issue on machinery that’s older than they are, reports Michael Koretzky. They’re writing their stories on manual typewriters and copyediting them in pencil. “They lay it all out with pica poles and proportion wheels. They paste it all up with X-Acto knives and rubber cement.” A few of the students have even dressed the part of ’70′s-era journalists, looking a little bit like Vinnie Barbarino.

 

And much like 70s era journalists, they are ensuring that they make deadline by doing piles of coke in the office.

 

They must have paid people at your paper better than they paid people at mine.

 

X-Acto knives? We had to use the edge of the table. Rich bastards.

 

I think this is a fantastic idea. Journalism is journalism, regardless of the tools or the medium.

I'm grateful to be old enough that our high school yearbook was built with pica poles and blue sheets and grease cropping pencils, but young enough to be able to adapt to new technologies quickly. I feel like I learned the best of both worlds.

 

I worked briefly at a paper that was still paste-up, although we had word-processing computers. This was only a dozen or so years ago, but it was quite an experience. We used the whole deal: pica poles, proportion wheels, blue pencils, dummy sheets. The paper had computers with Quark on them, but paginating was a firing offense.

Needless to say, the first chance I got to jump to a paper that paginated, I was gone.

 

Just a jump to the left?

 

If they didn't smoke in the newsroom and meet for beers after at the place, they did it wrong.

 

How is this in any way productive? It's like teaching a mechanic how to fix a carburetor. It's a practically useless skill.

 

Make 'em use phones with dials as well ...

 

Meh.

We put the paper out every night with archaic technology.

We use CCI.

 

It never hurts to learn the history of your trade....

That said, I pray my boss doesn't get any ideas!