Newspaper

The Rise and Fall of Modern Journalism

Evolution of American Newspaper

• The idea of news is as old as language itself• Acta Diurna “Daily Events”• Julius Caeser post• News informed people on the state of their

relations with neighboring tribes and towns

Colonial Newspapers• First developed in Europe• In America, first newspaper was Publick

Occurrences, both Foreign & Domestick in 1690 in Boston & printed by Bejamin Harris– Banned after one issue due to negative

tone

• 1704 Boston News-Letter reported on events that had taken place in Europe months later– Reported on local illnesses, public floggings

and even suicides

• 1721 James Franklin (related to Benjamin) started New England Courant then the Pennsylvania Gazette– Run with subsidies from political parties as

well as advertising

• New-York Weekly Journal printed by John Peter Zenger– Opposed British rule and ran articles that

criticized the royal government

Penny Press & Becoming a Mass Medium

• Zenger escalated attack on government and was arrested for seditious libel– Jury ruled in his favor, as long as stories were true– Decision provided foundation for First Amendment

• The gradual rise of political parties and the spread of commerce also influenced the development of early papers

• Political papers, known as the partisan press, generally pushed the plan of the particular political group that subsidized the paper.

• The commercial press by contrast served business leaders who were interest in economic issues

• Readership primarily confined to educated or wealthy men

Penny Press & Becoming a Mass Medium Cont.

• 1833 New York Sun founded by Benjamin Day– Slogan was “It shines for all”– Blazed trail for media’s celebrity obsession

due to favoring human-interest stories.– Also fabricated stories such as moon hoax

by reporting life on it

• James Gordon Bennett’s New York Morning Herald– Freed his paper from political influence– Established an independent paper serving

middle-and working-class reader

• In 1848 six New York newspapers formed a cooperative arrangement and founded the Associated Press (AP), the first major news wire service. – Wire services began as commercial

organizations that relayed news stories around the country using telegraph lines

• Rise of middles class and literacy was great for newspapers

• Also technology breakthroughs of the steam power press meant more papers can be printed in shorter amount of time which lowered their cost and then the Penny paper was sold

Yellow Journalism• The rise of competitive papers and

the penny triggered the movement of the late 1800s called Yellow Journalism

• Carried exciting human-interest stories, crime news, large headlines, and more readable copy

• Features two major characteristics– Overly dramatic-or sensational-

stories– Investigative journalism: news

reports that hunt out and expose corruption, particularly in business and government

Generally considered the first comic strip, the Yellow Kid was created by Richard Outcault who would work both for Joseph Pulitzer & William Randolph Hearst

Pulitzer & Hearst• Joseph Pulitzer, a Jewish-Hungarian immigrant

began his career in early 1870s• First owned St. Louise Post then bought The

St. Louise Dispatch to merge the post– The Post-Dispatch became one of the most

influential newspaper in the Midwest.– Known for stories that highlighted sex and sin as

well as satires– “national conscience” that promoted the public

good– He felt that papers should be a “freeing and

impartial” world and “serve the people”

• He then bought the New York World– Contradictory of yellow press; crusaded for

improved urban housing, better conditions for women, and equitable labor laws

– Did however manufacture events and staged stunts

• Pulitzer created a lasting legacy– Left $2 million to start graduate school for

journalism in Colombia University.– Colombia then developed the Pulitzer Prize for

achievements in journalism, literature, drama, and music

• William Randolph Hearst, Pulitzer’s fiercest competition, bought New York Journal then raided Pulitzer's paper for editors, writers and cartoonist.– Before New York he took control of San

Francisco Examiner when his father was elected to senate

– Focused on lurid, sensational stories and appealed to immigrant readers by using large headlines and bold layout design

– Invented interviews, faked pictures and encouraged conflicts in hopes it would result in a real story

– Said, “The modern editor of the popular journal does not care for facts. The editor wants novelty. The editor has no objection to facts if they are also novel. But he would prefer a novelty that is not a fact to a fact that is not a novelty.”

• Hearst is remembered as an unscrupulous publisher who once hired gangsters to distribute his newspapers but was considered a champion for the underdog

• By 1930s, Hearst holdings included more than 40 daily and Sunday papers, 13 magazines, 8 radio stations, and two film companies.

Modern Journalism• Two types of journalism began to emerge:

The Story Driven model & “Just the Facts” model– Story driven was about dramatizing

important events and used by the penny papers and yellow press

– “Just the Facts” was an approach that appeared to package information more impartially and that the six-cent paper favored

• As the consumer market place expanded during the Industrial Revolution, facts and news became marketable

• Early in the 20th century, reporters adopted a more scientific attitude to new-and-fact gathering which anchored objective journalism– This idea distinguished factual reports from

opinion columns. Modern reporters strive to maintain a neutral attitude toward the issue or event they cover. They also search out competing points of view among the sources for a story

The story form for packaging and presenting this kind of reporting has been labeled the inverted-pyramid style.

Modern Journalism Cont.• Under the sway of objectivity some modern

journalist downplayed the role of early partisan (opinion & analysis). This resulted in the rise of interpretive journalism→→– Aims to explain key issues and events, and place

them in a broader context– Walter Lippmann ranked press responsibilities:

Supply facts for the record, give analysis & advocate plans

– This type of journalism was also favored by the broadcasting force of radio

• Eventually there was attacks on the idea of objectivity– News critic Jack Newfield rejected the

possibility of genuine journalist impartially and argued that many reports had become too trusting and uncritical of the powerful.

– This caused alternative forms to emerge such as advocacy journalism (actively promoting a cause or viewpoint) & precision journalism (makes news more scientifically accurate by using pools and surveys

Modern Journalism Cont.

• There are also art forms of journalism called literary journalism– This type of journalism was more storytelling.– It was also dubbed the “new journalism” and it used

fictional techniques, such as descriptive details and settings and extensive character dialogue to non-fiction material and in-depth reporting

• Eventually with the growth of the internet many forms of newspapers started to transfer to web services and be produced online– The first of which was Columbus Dispatch in 1980

Reflection

• Think about everything discussed in class and reflect on the EQ then answer it. If you were in charge of a newspaper, what would you put in it? Why are those things important?

• Write out answer in notebook to say out loud