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Home > Online & Multimedia
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12:00 AM  Mar. 28, 2008
New Media Timeline (1985)
By David Shedden (More articles by this author)
Library Director, Poynter Institute

More in this series

Previous: 1984 / Next: 1986
View all of the years in the New Media Timeline

                 
                 TECHNOLOGY

    • The Windows operating system is released by Microsoft. (Windows had been announced in 1983.) Windows 1.0 provides a graphical operating environment for IBM compatible computers.

    • The average modem can transfer data at 2400 bps.

    • Affordable desktop publishing begins with the introduction of the Apple LaserWriter, the HP LaserJet, and software programs such as Aldus PageMaker.

    • Nintendo releases the Nintendo entertainment (video game) system.

    • The 80386, a 32-bit microprocessor with 275,000 transistors on each chip, is produced by Intel. (The chip will give the next generation of personal computers increased power and speed.)

      Additional Resources
     


      THE MEDIA

    • The Quantum Computer Services company is founded by Steven Case. His dial-up service develops BBS services for Commodore and Apple II computers. (This is the beginning of America Online.)

    • The online discussion community, The WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), is started by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant.

    • The PressLink service is founded by Knight Ridder. At first PressLink only distributes informational graphics and photos to Knight Ridders papers, but by 1989 the online service is available to other subscribers.

    • There are 50 newspapers offering full-text database versions of their stories through vendors such as Nexis, Vu/Text, Dialog, or DataTimes.
      (Source: News Media Libraries: A Management Handbook)

    • News Example:
      March 11, 1985 --
      "Chernenko Is Dead in Moscow at 73; Gorbachev Succeeds Him",
      New York Times.
      (Story available from
      database vendor services.)
    Additional Resources


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