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?