You just reminded me of one of the earlier uses of “hacker” in popular culture that I’m aware of - They Live (1988) - one of the vagrant guys in the homeless encampment referred to the interference upon the analog TV broadcast as being the work of a hacker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V-4JHT2q3w
This fictional hack may be inspired by actual events from a year earlier:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_signal_hijacking
I remember one of the kids in the film Jurassic Park referring to themselves as a hacker, but this time in a positive light. Not sure if that line was in the original book, or if that was an addition for the movie.
… he wrote on a site called Hacker News that is not focussed on unauthorized computer access :)