History of Journalism August 29,2007

History of Journalism

• August 29,2007

America’s First Newspapers

• One sheet

• Letters, essays—very little news

• First American newspaper:

• Publick Occurrences
• 1690
• Stopped after only one issue because British colonial authorities didn’t like what was printed

America’s First Newspapers

• The Boston News-Letter was the first continuously published newspaper in the colonies.

• It was supervised very closely by the British government.

The Boston News-Letter

Freedom of the Press

• In the colonies, any paper that criticized the government was guilty of sedition (the stirring of rebellion).

• Famous case: 1735

• John Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal was arrested for printing articles critical of the governor.
• The colonial jurors found him not guilty of sedition—a major turning point in the fight for freedom

Birth of a Nation

• By 1775 (when the Revolution began), 37 newspapers were being published in the colonies.

• Most newspapers backed the Patriots and were in favor of the Revolution. The newspapers were partisan at that time.

• Tory newspapers: supported the British
• Whig newspapers: supported the Revolution

• Some historians say there would not have been a Revolution without the support of the press.

First Amendment

• The Constitution makes no mention of the Freedom of the Press

• But the freedom of the press is addressed in the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights:

• “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

Penny Press

• Forerunner of today’s newspapers

• “Penny press” newspapers (such as the New York Sun and The New York Tribune) were sold for a penny and included real news—the police beat, natural disasters, etc.—and fewer opinions

• The “penny press” achieved a huge audience, made up mostly of the working class

• Advertising played a major role

• Not unusual for a city to have eight or nine competing newspapers

The Telegraph

• In 1861, reporters at Civil War battle sites began using the telegraph to transmit their news stories

• This led to more concise writing

• The telegraph led to the formation of the first news-gathering service (a forerunner of the Associated Press). Newspapers subscribed to this service.

Early telegraph

Yellow Journalism

• Late 1800s

• Unethical, irresponsible journalism that involved hoaxes, altered photographs, screaming headlines (like today’s tabloids)

• Sensationalism

• Geared at selling papers

• Most notable yellow journalists:

• William Randolph Hearst—New York Journal
• Joseph Pulitzer—New York World

Yellow Journalism

Nellie Bly

• One of the most famous female journalists (wrote during the late 1800s)

• Noted for her “stunts”—stories in which she was the one making the news

• Famous story:

• She pretended she was mentally ill and was committed to New York’s Blackwell Island Asylum
• Later wrote a story exposing the asylum’s poor conditions, and the story sparked reforms around the country

Nellie Bly, investigative journalist

Investigative Journalism

• After the era of yellow journalism, newspapers became crusaders for social causes

• Child labor laws, public health, poverty assistance

• Investigative reporters were called “muckrakers” by their critics

• Government made several reforms—including a reform of the meat-packing insdustry—as a result of the investigative pieces published in newspapers and magazines

Minority Media

• The Chicago Defender, founded in 1905

• influential African-American newspaper
• Founder, Robert S. Abbott, was the son of slaves

• African-American magazines continue to prosper today

• Hispanic, Native American, and Asian-American newspapers also are published

• Major newspapers and news networks are making a strong effort to attract minority reporters

Technology

• Radio:

• First news broadcast in 1916
• NBC formed in 1926 and CBS in 1927

• Television:

• First television newscast in 1940
• Because of TV news, most newspapers don’t put as much emphasis on “breaking news”
• They now try to provide the background on current events that readers didn’t get from the television

• Internet:

• An option for obtaining news and information with the click of a mouse