رئيس التحرير في مواجهة الآلية التلقائية ١_a .. كتاب صحافة الغد

The editor-in-chief faces the automatic mechanism

From time to time, many articles appear in newspapers about automation and its work in various fields. But we do not read much about the impact of this automatic mechanism on the press itself.

In fact, the mechanism appeared in the fifties of this century, and its existence required space. Without it, man would not have been able to penetrate the atmosphere. And it reaches other planets. The mechanism is something other than what it represents. Which began in the late nineteenth century. It is more than that, because it makes the machine work on its own. That is, it eliminates the interference of human effort in every work that is not required by the process of creation. To this day, the machine still needs the human mind in every creative work. In other words: the electronic mechanism does the work that a human does, but in... Millions of times faster and without errors.

In journalism, the mechanism performs the same operations as it performs in any other industry:

1 - Collecting raw materials.
2- Production preparation.
3- Production distribution.

The raw materials in journalism are limited to the methods of gathering news and editors’ articles. And informants (written speech), letters of delegates and correspondents, films, and clichés, through telecommunications, punched tapes, and magnetic tapes, and then. Through typewriters, archival recordings, photos, electronic and television devices.

As for production preparation, it requires hot collection machines (lead), cold collection machines (film), single-color or multi-color image transfer machines, electronic engraving machines, laser beams, paper, ink, and printing presses, while distribution requires assembly, winding, cutting, and counting machines, then all types of transportation equipment. Cars, planes, trains, ships, bicycles, etc.

When the editor-in-chief thinks about all these things that his computer can do, he is amazed. Especially since until recently, he only saw three things from the press: paper, ink, and a printing press. Now, journalism has become a huge industry, in which electronic machinery plays a major role. Or at least it will play a huge role in the next ten years.

Therefore, many publishers and editors-in-chief began to look at this issue seriously: How can they face this new era? What are his tools? Where are the specialists who will turn this wheel? . The wheel of the press industry that produces short-lived written information »?

From here, experts and technicians began to assist the editors-in-chief and pave the way to the future for them. They imagine - and some of this has actually been achieved - the great editorial halls and their beating heart (the electronic mind) in the middle of the hall between the editors' offices, and all of this is linked to wireless receiving machines and modern assembly halls.

On the editor-in-chief's desk - in the middle of the room - there is a main screen, a secondary screen, electronic light pens, a keyboard connected to the mind, and fast machines for transferring images and copying articles.

A strange view of the editor-in-chief's office, completely different from the office we know today. The editor-in-chief can, using his electronic pen, modify any news or article that appears in front of him on the screen. Using photo transfer and article copying machines, he can print any proof of any subject or image he sees on the screen and wants to keep them close to him. This method will increase the chance of amendment without disrupting work. On the contrary, the time between the editor-in-chief’s cry (Stop the machines, we have got important news) and the newspaper seller’s cry and important news will become... Appendix » .

Here some thinkers stop and wonder: Do they become news and articles? They are more “thought.” Will tomorrow’s publishers and editors be able to be “masters” of the thought they express? There is another point that these experts and technicians did not talk about, which is the high prices of these machines. Who or what institution can alone carry out these expensive operations? Does this mean that institutions will merge together and form a monopoly in order to survive? (This has already begun to happen in America and Britain) If these institutions cannot stand on their feet, should they ask governments for financial subsidies to enable them to withstand? Then journalistic thought will disappear, freedom of the press will end, and the fourth estate will be lost.”

This verbal battle has already taken place in France between technologists and journalists. But journalists eventually began to be convinced by what the experts said, and they began to think with them from today on the press of 1980.

Technologists say: (The development that occurred in the press industry from 1960 to today far exceeds the development that occurred in it from 1900 to 1960).

Investments in press institutions increased in this short period by one hundred percent, while they only increased in other industries during this same period by 28%, and in the next stage - until 1980 - the number will undoubtedly double. This means that the revenue from selling printed copies will reach $20 billion, as experts estimate.

This will also entail a major change in the way we work, and in the industry itself, there will be huge developments that would not occur to today's editor-in-chief. One of these developments is that many publishing houses will dispense with most of the machines they use today, replacing them with other machines that are more advanced and perhaps completely different in their appearance and what they produce. Ink and paper are not necessarily the basic materials in the modern press industry.

If we look at the development that occurred in the photocopier - which is a miniature printing press - we find that it is completely different from what it was ten years ago. This machine printed slow copies of any written material on sensitive paper that was then fixed with chemical acids. . These small machines have now become completely different from what they were, and they print written material or images without sensitive paper, without chemical acids, and very quickly.

This machine works electrostatically. It is enough to insert the paper written by hand or on a typewriter into its slot, and by pressing an electric button, another copy - or multiple copies - of the written material comes out. This is without printing or ink.

The research being conducted now on this method has entered an important stage, to transform it into printing newspapers in this same way... that is, without ink. The results of this research began to appear in the form of a printing press for printing maps - for the Intertype Company - on the electrostatic system.

Experiments have shown that this method is a resounding success, and the printed copies were extremely perfect.

The Institute of Technological Research in Illinois in the United States has carried out an important study on this subject to apply this theory to newspaper printing, and it will be achieved in 1980 on a large scale.

The research they conduct extends to:

1 - Discovering a new method for printing on paper-like sheets using high-intensity electrical pulses that can char the surface of the paper that was exposed to electricity, resulting in printing without ink.

2 - Preparing a type of (paper) that hides hidden colors that appear on its surface when it is exposed to an electric static or electromagnetic field, and it has the same purpose, which is to nullify the use of ink.

3 - Preparing lenses that can read handwritten material and convert it directly into lead letters or letters printed on film.

4- Converting a high-speed photocopier (cold printing) machine into a device that can produce images through a network of lenses.

5 - Developing a new method with (ultrasonic) voltage and high vibrations, to glue printing paper that rotates on circular tubes - which is always vulnerable to cutting due to extreme speed and needs to be glued with glue at times that may disrupt the printing process - and this method replaces the use of traditional glue.

6- Arriving at making plates (cliché) for use in offset printing without water. This was offset printing. It is a type of modern printing that produces amazing results in images and requires water in addition to ink to print.

It is clear from all of this that journalism will be subjected to a huge development in the next ten years, more than it has been exposed to in the past sixty years. All of these events and discussions about the development of journalism occupy the first place among the ideas of technologists in the Western world. But where does Arabic printing in the Middle East stand regarding these events? Is it still lagging behind in its printing? How much time will it take to catch up? Sophisticated?

In fact, Arab press institutions were not far from what was happening there. Since 1960, Al-Ahram Newspaper Foundation began its studies and research, which lasted two years. In 1962, it was able to obtain the first electronic device for engraving clichés (the clichograph) in the United Arab Republic. This device can engrave the cliché directly from the original image without using a camera or etching acids, and at an amazing speed, meaning that it dispenses with several stages: the first is transferring.