Architect or Bee? (1980):
Likewise, the print industry is now being transformed by the
use of computers. Those in the industry are being assured that it
will increase their creativity as well. Apart from the jobs perman-
ently eliminated by these new technologies and the conflict which arises (as at the Times), I would argue that much of the creative work within the print industry and the newspaper industry as a whole is being diminished. The new role of the journalists will be to work through a visual display unit where they prepare not merely the text, but through the computer, the typeface as well. It is suggested that since they can move sections of text around and modify sentences and paragraphs at great speed, this will increase their creativity. However, experience of these new technologies in the United States has already begun to show that it is resulting not in flexibility but in rigidity. This is because standard statements can be stored in the computer and called up when required to compose a story. This is done initially by counting through the computer the rate at which certain phrases or sentences occur. The most frequent ones are then stored and treated as optimum sentences. Or "preferred subroutines" which the journalist is then required to use. (We are obsessed with optimization!).
The beginning (?) of boilerplate journalism.