This week's guest post comes from a 1982 Grady grad, Cindy Foster Grace (a.k.a., the one who started it all -- thanks to Cindy for suggesting the alumni posts). Here's her post:
On Not Becoming An IBM Selectric. The Tale Of A Would-Be Dinosaur.
Recently, I realized that I could become a dinosaur at the tender age of 49. Things in my field of expertise have changed so radically that it is difficult at times not to feel out of touch.
I suppose I could blame the computer, but it's really not that simple. See, when I graduated
from UGA's School of Journalism in 1982 we had limited media options for marketing and advertising. Things were simple and I understood how they worked (for the most part).
About 1985, we got our first computers at the advertising agency I worked for. In essence, these computers served a word processing function. Our biggest choice was whether or not to have the type appear as lime green or magenta on a black screen and floppy discs really were big and floppy. Don't get me wrong, this was HUGE in that you could save your work. This was a major time-saving breakthrough. Previously, if a presentation had to be reworked or rewritten, you had to start from scratch at the old IBM Selectric typewriter working until 3 am when your eyes became bleary and the bottle of WhiteOut started to get gummy. You'd pass out face down in a Domino's box of cold half-eaten pepperoni pizza only to rise stiff and crabby to start working again at 8 a.m. when the rest of the staff started to show up at the office.
We purchased our first home computer roughly 15 years ago. It was a Gateway with a whopping Pentium 75 and a 14400 modem. We got an internet account, but between you and me, the Internet was pretty lame for those first couple of years. I mostly used it to help Dad with his genealogical research and even then, there wasn't much out there.
In the past 10 years, things have changed at warp speed. Technology has exploded and with it, all these new venues for marketing and advertising have opened up. We've gone from broadcast radio and television to streaming real-time broadcasts on the internet, podcasts, social networking media, viral marketing etc...etc. And it seems to me the possibilities for communicating are endless so therefore, there is no end in sight to the things I need to learn to stay relevant in my field.
Sure words haven't changed much and writing per se hasn't changed. But the places where writing happens and the audiences you write to have changed enormously and I find myself looking up terms I'm not familiar with on a daily basis just trying to keep up with all the places and ways writing, marketing and advertising take place. In fact, what I consider my "field of expertise," the advertorial piece, is something that is a fairly new phenomenon. I don't remember addressing it at all in my journalism classes, but it is a format I've taken to with alacrity. Being wordy myself, I like having the option of writing in a magazine article format with a marketing slant. But, still this method of advertising and marketing isn't something I've studied formally.
Honestly, in 1982, who would have thought we’d be on the brink of the extinction of the urban newspaper due to increased internet use and falling circulation? Who dreamed of a blogosphere where any self-appointed writer could jump on and churn out opinions without benefit of an editor or apparently even without a copy of the AP Stylebook in one hand and Strunk and White’s Elements of Style in the other? Back then, it was inconceivable that terms like LOL and IDK would become part of the common vernacular.
Of course, that’s all changed and I’ve had to change too. I entered the field of journalism because I viewed it as an occupation where I would continually be exposed to new ideas and new information. I assumed this learning would take the form of investigating the subjects of the various assignments I would handle. I had no idea that staying abreast of the basics in this industry would be a part of this learning process as well.
Graduation is not the end of the journey to learn, it is merely the beginning. Keep your head up. Pay attention to what is going on. Perhaps return to school for a little more formal education (I’m contemplating this option) But know, that after more than two decades, I have discovered that a keen eye on trends can keep you relevant. Otherwise, you’ll become an IBM Selectric…I mean…dinosaur.
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