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Chapter 8:
Newspapersand the Rise of
Modern Journalism
Some guiding questionsHow did newspapers emerge as a mass
medium?How have the standards of journalism
changed in the modern era?How do issues of ownership, economics
and technology bear upon journalism?What are central concerns about
journalism and democracy?
THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN NEWSPAPER JOURNALISM
How would you define it?
What is “news,”anyway?
What is NEWS?
News satisfies our need to know things we cannot experience personally.
News documents daily life and bears witness to ordinary and extraordinary events.
Does it just report FACTS, or does it help us to interpret them?
EARLY AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
Colonial newspapers in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, South Carolina
By 1765, about thirty newspapers
First DAILY paper in 1784Readership primarily limited to
elite and educated men: WHY?
Limited readership in 18th century
Low literacy rate among working and middle classes
Newspaper production and distribution was expensive
Newspaper subscription rates were high
Press did not address women’s interests or those of working class
Political versus Commercial Papers
Both shaped by response to British rule and the spread of commerce
PARTISAN PRESS: political bias, argued for one perspective
COMMERCIAL PRESS: served interests of business and economic leaders
Pioneering Colonial Women as Newspaper Owners
Elizabeth Timothy: South Carolina Gazette, 1738
Anna Maul Zenger: New York Journal, 1746
ERA OF THE PENNY PRESS
(1820s)
Industrial Revolution: new technologies made MASS PUBLISHING cheaper and faster
New strategies by some publishers to attract working-class readers
PENNY PRESS STRATEGIES
Lowered cost to one penny per issue
Focus on local events, scandals and crime
Ran serialized storiesHuman interest storiesCelebrity newsFashion notesJokes
PENNY PAPER INNOVATIONS
Shifted economic base from political party subsidies to an ADVERTISING MARKET: Advertising revenue Classified ads Street sales rather than
subscriptions
Wire Services
In 1848, Associated Press (AP) was founded.
6 New York newspapers in cooperative arrangement
AP relayed news stories and information around the country using telegraph lines.
ERA OF YELLOW JOURNALISM
Age of SENSATIONALISM (to attract readers/ consumers)
Age of INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING (to crusade for common people)
Two infamous publishers
JOSEPH PULITZER: Eastern European immigrant, built empire from St. Louis Post-Dispatch to New York World Appealed to working classes Promoted consumerism Crusaded against corruption
WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST: son of U.S. senator, built empire from San Francisco Examiner to New York Journal: Appealed to immigrant and working
class Sensational journalism (like tabloids
today) Champion of the underdog Model for Citizen Kane (1941 film)
Two infamous publishers
MODERN JOURNALISM IN AMERICA
Ideals of objectivity versus the need for analysis and interpretation
Two COMPETING MODELS:
STORY model: dramatized events, used individual characters and narrative structure
INFORMATION model: emphasized a purely factual, straightforward approach
Do these two models exist today? Think of some examples.
OBJECTIVE JOURNALISM
Became dominant model in 20th century American journalism
Reporters strive to maintain a NEUTRAL, UNBIASED ATTITUDE about the issues
Reporters seek to show BALANCED and COMPETING POINTS OF VIEW.
Inverted Pyramid Style of Reporting
What? Efficient model for news reporting
How? Concentrated main details about news at top of story (WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN)
Why? Initially, to ensure that primary elements got through telegraph transmissions
INTERPRETIVE JOURNALISM
A style of reporting that tries to put issues and events in broader social and historical context.
Explanatory, interpretive analysis of news
Why? To help public to better understand complex events and issues
To make a current recordTo make a running analysis of itOn the basis of both, to suggest
plans
Walter Lippman’s model ofPress
Responsibility
WHAT IS THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN INFORMATION and INTERPRETATION?
What role do you think journalism should take?
Attack on objectivity as dominant model (1960s)
new journalistic forms
Advocacy journalismPrecision journalismLiterary journalism
CONTEMPORARY JOURNALISM
Innovative news forms that combine information, entertainment, persuasion, and analysis
PRINT vs. ELECTRONIC NEWS
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each
mode?
ETHNIC, MINORITY, AND OPPOSITIONAL NEWSPAPERS
Ethnic Newspaper Publications
Various newspapers for immigrant and ethnic groups
Hispanic pressNative American pressAfrican American press
African American newspapers
Antislavery newspapers, 1827-1865
Major urban papers (early 20th century): Pittsburgh Courier Amsterdam News (NYC) Chicago Defender
OWNERSHIP, ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY
What issues face the world of newspaper publishing today?
ISSUES TODAYCIRCULATION CRISIS:
decline in readershipCOMPETING NEWSPAPERS
in major cities (mergers, JOAs)NEWSPAPER CHAINSNEW TECHNOLOGIES (online
journalism)
What is a newspaper’s
role in a democracy?