Media History from

Gutenberg

to the Digital Age

Slides based on the Bloomsbury book by Bill Kovarik

Revolutions in

Communication

Chapter 2 – Industrial media -- #6

Web site & textbook

Textbook:

1st edition – 2011 2nd edition – 2016

http://www.revolutionsincommunication.com

Topics

Steam power and printing

Penny press – starts in NY

◦ business model spreads worldwide

◦ mass circulation = profitable advertising

Progressive era press

◦ Better presses, photos, more circulation

◦ Crusading press, science service

◦ Yellow press, tabloids

Steam power @ London Times 1814

Done in secrecy

No layoffs

Avoids Luddite

rebellion

1,400 pages / hour

Both sides

Compared to 250

pages / hour on old

hand press

More circulation means more revenue

Ends dependence on political parties

New business model for the media lasts until the 21st century

Penny press -- new business model

NY newspapers were first in 1830s ◦ Sun, Herald, Tribune, Times

London newspapers – tax lifted 1855 ◦ Daily Telegraph, Pall Mall Gazette

Paris newspapers, serialized fiction ◦ Le Figaro, La Presse

◦ Alexandre Dumas, Honore Balzac

German papers revolution 1848 --Bonner Zeitung, Carl Schurz ◦ Penny Press - Berliner Tageblatt (Scherlism)

New York penny press

Starts with Benjamin Day’s Sun ◦ Published out of desperation, sold on street

corners

◦ Concerned with daily lives, police court, murders, controversies Politicians and “great questions” were secondary

News items snarky, unprofessional: SUDDEN DEATH—Ann McDonough, of Washington Street, attempted

to drink a pint of rum on a wager, on Wednesday afternoon last. Before it was half swallowed Ann was a corpse. Served her right!

Sun remembered for “moon hoax” and “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”

Moon Hoax NY Sun 1835

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa

Claus He exists as certainly as love and

generosity and devotion exist, and

you know that they abound and

give to your life its highest beauty

and joy. Alas! How dreary would

be the world if there were no

Santa Claus. It would be as

dreary as if there were no

Virginias.

-- Francis P. Church, NY Sun,

1897

Note: Just before Christmas 2011, a Chicago news anchor advised

parents to stop lying and to tell their children that “there is no Santa

Claus.” She was back on the air the next day, apologizing for her

horrible mistake, and quoting Francis P. Church. http://bit.ly/KMRtfk

NY Herald – 1835

Daily mix of robberies, rapes and

murders

J.G. Bennett hired reporters, set up

news bureaus, emphasized sensational

news and not opinion

Was widely hated …

A “foul mass of positive

obscenity.” -- Charles Dickens

His only chance of dying an

upright man “will be that of

hanging perpendicularly from

a rope.” -- Benjamin Day

James Gordon Bennett

NY Tribune – 1841

• A more trustworthy and moral

newspaper

• Promoted women’s rights, labor

unions, national parks, westward

expansion, and the end of

monopolies

• Helped Abraham Lincoln run for

president

• Famous quote: “Go west, young

man, and grow up with the

country.”

• “I am sure (the redwoods of

California) will be more prized and

treasured a thousand years hence

than now, should they, by extreme

care and caution, be preserved so

Horace Greeley

New York Times – 1851

• National “paper of record”

• Shunned Bennett’s

sensationalism and Greeley’s

moral crusades

• Attacked corrupt Tammany Hall

political machine in the early

1870s

• Adolph Ochs, a Southern

publisher, bought The Times in

1896 and coined the paper’s

slogan:

• “All the news that’s fit to print.”

Henry Raymond

London Daily Telegraph -

1855• Founded by Joseph

M Levy after

newspaper tax lifted

• Modeled after NY

Herald

• Featured articles

about crime,

murder and

curiosities

• Partnered with NY

Herald to sponsor

expedition to find

Dr. Livingston in

East Africa

“I said: ‘Dr. Livingstone, I presume?’

‘Yes,’ he said, with a kind, cordial smile,

lifting his cap slightly … and we both

grasped hands.” – Henry Morton

Stanley, NY Herald and London Daily

Telegraph, 1871

Actually, journalist Henry

Morton Stanley didn’t

“find” Livingston, since

he wasn’t “lost.”

Stanley was reputed to

be a cruel racist who

regularly beat and shot

the Africans who worked

for him on his

expeditions.

Stanley’s raw racism is

not well hidden in this

photo.

Pall Mall Gazette 1880s

William T. Stead

• Exposed prostitution in London

using sensationalistic methods

• Featured crime and scandal

mixed with crusades for slum

reform and expansion of the

British empire

• Government by journalism:

• Press would have its own

leaders in Parliament with the

power to inspect all government

departments.

• Journalist “major generals”

would serve as public opinion

pollsters and “interrogators of

democracy.”

Penny Press in France

Held back by taxes and censorship

Paris newspapers – Le Figaro, La

Presse

Innovated with serialization of popular

novels such as Three Musketeers

(1844), Count of Monte Christo

Dreyfus affair 1898 – J’Accuse by

Emile Zola in L’aurore

Alexandre

Dumas

Three

Musketeers was

serialized in a

French

newspaper, Le

Siècle,

March–July 1844

before being

printed as a

book.

Emile Zola

German Penny Press

“A German daily is the slowest and saddest and dreariest of the inventions of man … Our own (US) dailies infuriate the reader, pretty often; the German daily only stupefies him” -- Mark Twain

March Revolution of 1848 advocated freedom of the press and Constitutional government

Bonner Zeitung - revolutionary Carl Schurz

Schurz fled to US, set up German-language St. Louis newspaper

Sold it to Joseph Pulitzer who shared Schurz’ democratic ideals and founded Post-Dispatch

In 1870s, NY Herald editors work with August Scherl to create German tabloids

European revolution of 1848

Joseph Pulitzer (1847–1911)

• Hungarian immigrant who fought with

Union cavalry in Civil War

• Worked with publishers influenced by

Revolution of 1848

• Established St. Louis Post – Dispatch

1872, then New York World in 1882

• Crusaded against corruption, racism

and slum housing

• Enlisted readers in effort to build

Statue of Liberty pedestal

• Kept US from war with England in

1894, but pressured US into war with

Spain 1898

• Endowed Pulitzer Prize in his will

Pulitzer was popularly

seen as something of

a nag in his day, rather

than a great hero of

the press.

Here (on right) he is

trying to get Uncle

Sam to intervene in

the Boer War in South

Africa (c. 1900).

Pulitzer exposed

bribery over the

Panama Canal, and

when threatened by

Teddy Roosevelt with

a libel suit, said: “The World cannot be

muzzled.”

Pulitzer vs Hearst

William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951)

A study in contrasts -- A huge man with a

tiny voice – Parodied in Citizen Kane

Populist reformer who championed labor

unions early in his career but fought them

bitterly when they organized his papers.

Used his inherited millions to get started in

publishing and then attacked monopolies

under the motto of “truth, justice and public

service.”

A war hawk in Cuba in the 1890s but a

pacifist in Europe in the 1930s due to pro-

German sentiments

Used newspapers ruthlessly for scandal,

political influence. Grossly unfair to Annie

Oakley, Fatty Arbuckle and many others.

Nelly Bly

Pulitzer’s most

famous reporter

Went “Around the

World” in 72 days

Beat the 80 day

record in the Jules

Verne novel

Also went under-

cover in a

madhouse and

investigated

women’s issues

E.W. Scripps

Set up first major newspaper chain

using penny press tactics in

Michigan, Ohio and across the

Midwest

Although barely educated, but he

understood the significance of

science in the 20th century

Established Scripps Oceanographic

Institution and the Science News

Service.

“The way to make democracy

safe is to make it more scientific.”

Alfred Harmsworth

(Lord Northcliffe)

Can fish speak? Do dogs commit murder?

How many people cross London Bridge

each day? How much gold is in the Bank of

England?

Readers who answered these questions

could get cash awards.

• “Struck gold” with Daily Mail in 1896 – also

founded Daily Mirror, purchased London Times

• Like Pulitzer and Hearst, Harmsworth backed a

small war—the Boer War in South Africa

• Popular stunts but tepid reporting due to British

libel laws favoring plaintiffs

• Made a Lord in 1918 for help in WWI effort

Review: Issues

Partisan press, steam printing, penny

press, taxes on knowledge, Moon

hoax, yellow journalism, search for Dr.

Livingston, Science News Service,

crusading journalism, stunt journalism,

revolution of 1848, serialized novel

(roman-feuilleton), Yes Virginia there

is a Santa Claus

Review: People

John Walter II, Benjamin Day, James

Gordon Bennett, James Gordon

Bennett Jr., Horace Greeley, Henry

Raymond, Joseph M. Levy, William T.

Stead, Henry Morton Stanley, Emile

Zola, Georges Clemenceau, Carl

Schurz, Kark Marx, August Sherl,

Mark Twain, Joseph Pulitzer, William

Randolph Hearst, E.W. Scripps, Nelly

Bly, Alfred Harmsworth

Next: Chapter 3

The 20th century press