It was the late 1970s and the age of home computers had just begun. Soon, computers would run entire households: turning on lights, doing your taxes, balancing your checkbook and even preparing your meals. They would do every menial task using a chip the same size as the one existing in pocket calculators, but with the power of the 1949 ENIAC computer, which was the size of a city block. The home computer would completely take control of our lives, and we’d be living the lives seen on the cartoon “The Jetsons.”

Well, they were pretty close.

In 1977, the Apple II home computer launched and it rang alarms declaring the future had arrived. The New York Times picked this up as an opportunity to explore the realm of home computers. In their coverage, they sought to find a reason to own a home computer. The Apple II cost $1,300 when it first came out, and was a lot of money for a regular consumer to invest. There simply had to be a purpose behind buying this computer. They interviewed other computer makers who all boasted the fact that their computers were going to make people’s lives easier, especially businesses. The New York Times saw that there was no real reason why the average household should have this computer, but the possibility still lingered.

The Los Angeles Times took a different approach. They seemed excited about the future of technology. One story titled “Your Own Computer May Soon Combat Bill Gremlins” started out by outlining an outlandish detail of a computerized lifestyle where the computer did everything you could possibly think of. It recognized that computers to many people were something that only belonged to the scientific elite, pointing out some people’s fear of using computers, but referred to a future where everyone had one. They noted that children would most likely be the ones who fully grasp technology, which intrigued me because often adults will say that today; that their kids know how to use computers better than they do, despite it not being an integral part of their lives.

These stories are easily compared to contemporary stories. Technology moves so fast that coverage is very much accelerated as well, always looking ahead. The stories often involve new technologies and how they are supposed to change people’s lives, or how they can be applied with other technologies to better their use. For instance, the advent of web applications has brought a new dialogue into the tech community: is cloud-computing, that is, applications running on servers online and only accessing the data through a web browser (ex. Google Docs), relevant? Many positively speculate its future and its possible uses, while others disagree and say its useless, much like the newspapers did back in the 1970s when discussing home computers.

It is interesting to see how confused and shocked people were of home computers nearly 30 years ago when we think about how we use them today, and how important they are in our daily lives. Back then, people didn’t know what to do with them, and now we don’t know what to do without them.

-(CE)Ian

Reporter George W. Schulz urged journalism students to develop investigative skills in a lecture given at San Francisco State University on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009.

Schulz told the students that these skills would make getting the information one needs for a story much easier. He also said these skills would allow them to find stories that others might overlook. He stressed that much of the information one needs for a story is readily available to the public. Schulz said one must be knowledgeable of the world they live in

He noted that one of the strongest tools of a journalist is knowing the area you live in well. This knowledge will lead to great sources. Schulz said he got to know the city of San Francisco by driving newspaper circulation trucks for the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

He also imparted the students with some general tips any journalist. He gave them techniques for interviewing. He taught them about the ways people try to shield themselves from the press. He explained the importance of having general knowledge of the world. He did this by urging students to read as much as they could.

Schulz graduated from the University of Kansas. He went on to work for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. There he learned much of the ins and outs of the newspaper business. He also met A.C. Thompson, who taught him many of the lessons he passed on during his lecture.

Schulz left the Bay Area, returning to Kansas, and worked for the Urban Tulsa Weekly. A new market meant a new perspective for Schulz. He said the change in market taught him a valuable lesson. He had to work harder to meet the new standards. He also learned about the alternative journalism scene through various niche magazines containing articles that the mainstream media never covered. This broadened his sense of what one can do with journalism.

Since returning to the Bay Area, he has gone on to work for the Center of Investigative Reporting in Berkeley. Some of his work there includes finding the impact on civil liberties after Sept. 11, 2001, as well as researching how officials are spending Homeland Security grants. -30-