Chapter 8:
Newspapers
and the Rise of
Modern Journalism
Some guiding questions
How 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
What is “news,”
anyway?
How would you
define it?
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 1784
Readership 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 stories
Human interest stories
Celebrity news
Fashion notes
Jokes
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
Two infamous publishers
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)
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
Walter Lippman’s model of
Press Responsibility
To make a current record
To make a running analysis of it
On the basis of both, to suggest
plans
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 journalism
Precision journalism
Literary 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 press
Native American press
African American press
African American newspapers
Antislavery newspapers, 18271865
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 TODAY
CIRCULATION CRISIS: decline
in readership
COMPETING NEWSPAPERS in
major cities (mergers, JOAs)
NEWSPAPER CHAINS
NEW TECHNOLOGIES (online
journalism)
What is a
newspaper’s
role in a
democracy?