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Cold Type: Computerized Typesetting and Occupational Subcultures in the New York City Newspaper Industry

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Cold Type: Computerized Typesetting and Occupational Subcultures in the New York City Newspaper Industry City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 1988 Cold Type: Computerized Typesetting and Occupational Subcultures in the New York City Newspaper Industry Eve Fay Hochwald The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3892 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] INFORMATION TO USERS The most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this manuscript from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 3 0 0 North Z e e b R oad, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 8014750 Cold typo: Computerised typesetting and occupational subcultures in the New York City newspaper industry Hochwald, Eve Fayt Ph.D. City University ofNew York, 1088 Copyright ©1088 by Hochwald, Eve Fay. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zccb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 COLD TYPE: COMPUTERIZED TYPESETTING AND OCCUPATIONAL SUBCULTURES IN THE NEW YORK CITY NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY by EVE HOCHWALD A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in partial £ul£illaent of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 1988 (c) 1988 BVB HOCHWALD All Rights Reserved iii This nanuscrlpt has been read and accepted £or the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. [Signature] Date Chair of Examining Committee [Signature] ^ JX*? _________ Date Executive Officer Professor Edvard Hanson Professor Gaye Tuchman Supervisory Committtee City University of New York Iv Abstract COLD TYPE: THE IMPACT OF COMPUTERIZED TYPESETTING ON OCCUPATIONAL SUBCULTURES IN THE NEW YORK CITY NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY by Eve Hochwald Adviser: Professor June Nash Using a framework drawn from recent social science discussions of the labor process and from the anthropological literature on culture as the generative basis through which people adapt to or transform their social circumstances, this dissertation analyses the changes occurring in the occupational subcultures and political organization of printers, journalists, and computer service workers in the New York City newspaper industry since the introduction of computerized type­ setting in the mid-1970s. One consequence has been a restructured labor force, entailing a shift of skilled, traditionally male, manual craft jobs to, on the one hand, clerical "women's work," and, on the other, professLonal-technlcal jobs, filled by both sexes, with an accompanying shift from a "residual" cohesive occu­ pational subculture to an "emergent" one based on attenuated relationships, and an individualistic ethic V o£ "professionalism" replacing a collective identity expressed through trade unionism. "Cold type" is the first major composing room innovation since the introduction of the linotype machine about a century ago. Although there has been considerable continuity from then until now in the issues of class and gender definition that animate the newspaper workplace — articulated in struggles between craft workers and their employers, and between "skilled" (male) and "unskilled" (female) workers — these changes in the underlying social relationships at work make their political resolution different this time around. In the new, depersonalized automated work­ place, with its fragmented social ties, communal issues become particularly Important, because they build on or sometimes create an ongoing interpersonal community, a necessary precondition for collective action, but one that is no longer a necessary condition of production. This finding is illustrated by the goals — affirmative action and video display terminal safety — that moti­ vated newspaper activists during my fieldwork, and by the feminist and health-and-safety networks which gave them support. Vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was made possible by the help o£ many people. I am indebted to members of the Newspaper Guild, the International Typograpical Union, and the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, anonymous at their request, who shared their opinions and experiences with me. I am also grateful to the New York Women's Anthropology Caucus, the Women and Work Training Grant, and the Sociology and Anthropology Programs of the City University of New York Graduate Center, for providing the intellectual home in which this project took shape. For their help at its various stages, I thank Michael Agar, Hilde Alexander-Katz, the late Lydia Avery, May Ebihara, Cynthia Epstein, George Fisher, Jeanne Friedman, Nathalie Friedman, Werner Hochwald, Bill Kornblum, Lilo Lienhardt, Theresa Rogers, Dean Savage, Sydel Silverman, Carl Schlesinger, Carl Torgloff, Terri Vulcano, and Betsy Wade; for their patience and cheer throughout, I thank Martin and Hannah Janal. Most of all, I thank the members of my dissertation committee, Ed Hansen, the late Eleanor Leacock, Gaye Tuchman, and my adviser, June Nash, without whose encouragement and example this work would not have been started or completed. Vi i For their support of the fieldwork on which this dissertation is based, I thank the City University of New York Graduate Center for a Distinguished Scholar Dissertation Award in the Social Sciences, and the National Institute of Mental Health for a predoctoral fellowship funded through the Economics and Sociology of Women and Work Training Grant at the City University of New York Graduate Center, 1980-83. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and to Newnham College and the University of Cambridge for their hospitality and for the use of their libraries. Responsibility for the ideas expressed, is, of course, mine alone. vili CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ............................. 1 II. TKE WORKING OUT OP HISTORIC POSSIBILITIES: GENDER, CLASS, AND THE NEWSPAPER TRADE UNIONS ..................... ................. 18 III. OCCUPATIONAL SUBCULTURES IN TRANSITION ____ 94 IV. DESKILLING AND RESISTANCE IN THE AUTOMATED NEWSPAPER WORKPLACE ................... 225 V. CONCLUSION: TOWARD A FRAGMENTED FUTURE ... 300 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................... 313 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION As long as anthropological interest in technology and the division o£ labor was concentrated in non- industrial societies, the particular technology under consideration was a given. Either the indigenous tech­ nology was presumed to have been in place always, or it was introduced, imposed through contact, coloniali- zation, or development.1 Until recently the same assumption o£ technology as a given has Influenced stu­ dies of technological change in industrial societies, where it is unwarranted. Instead, the emerging view of technological dev­ elopment is that it arises from historic circumstances, the product of class Interests and gender definition (Bose 1974; Cowan 1983; Fleischman, 1977; Noble 1977, Regardless of its origin, however, anthropolo­ gists report similar findings regarding the impact of foreign technology. Reviewing community studies of "developing" areas, for example, Pelto and Bernard (1972) confirm the hypothesis that the introduction of new production technology leads to heightened social stratification and less equal distribution of resources within a given population or region. Referring to Latin America, Wolf and Hansen (1974:vi) describe the growing polarization between rich and poor, caused by the "growing irrelevance of the masses to the increasingly concentrated forms of production generated by overseas metropolises." 2 1984; Strasser 1982). This changing perspective, stresses the dialectical relationship between the labor process and technological innovation. As described by Marx (1977 (18661:291-92), the" labor process — the process by which the capitalist consumes labor-power — exhibits two characteristic phenomena: First, the worker works under the control o£ the capitalist to whom his work belongs; ...Secondly,
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