Chronicle of a Death Foretold?

This little news piece from 1981 is making the rounds. As the reporter notes, “this is only the first step in newspapers by computer”:

So many things to love here:

  • the “estimated two to three thousand home computer owners in the Bay Area”
  • the newspaper guy saying “and we’re not in it to make money. We’re probably not going to lose a lot, but we’re not going to make much either.”
  • that the newspaper vendor is safe in his job, “for the moment”
  • that the reporter could be seen as believing it’s just the vendor who has to be worried
  • or maybe just that these two minutes of reportage, seen from a contemporary perspective, are shot through with a dreadful kind of irony.

Welcome to the future.

By Tim | 29th January 2009 at 1:47 pm
Filed under: San Francisco, anticipation, irony, journalism
Tags: , , ,
Share/Bookmark

One Response »

  1. Tim on January 29th, 2009 at 3:39 pm:

    By the way, I was toying with calling this “Chronicle of the Chronicle’s Death Foretold?” Meh.

Leave a Reply