Comm4052Media History
Professor Kilmer
News--A Perpetually Evolving Social Institution
In these charts, please notice that while the definition of news (information people need to lead their daily
lives) stays the same, the interpretation changes. What information people require to be happy and productive in
their personal and public existence shifts over time as the social context evolves and new technology emerges.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Time
Forms
Interpretation
Content
Readers
Newspaper
Period
of Media
of the
of
Employees
Definition
Newspapers
of News
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Colonial
16-17th
centuries
Letters
Conversations
A few books
Pamphlets
Broadsides
Ads
Incidents
of public
interest
that revealed the
consequences
of sin and the
rewards of virtue
Letters
from
travelers
Farming tips
Whole essays
Entire sermons
Fiction
Satires
Shipping and
commerce
items
Crowds
assembled
to hear
news read
aloud
Subscribers
who could
pay (not
many could
afford it)
One person or
a printer/editor
and his family
(Wives took over
if their husbands
died.)
Correspondents
with
pseudonyms
but sometimes
paid for their
contributions)
Some newspapers were devoted entirely to shipping/mercantile information.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Early
National
Period
The above
list
Plus
a few
magazines
More books
More
newspapers
Partisan press
What
readers
need to
know
to serve
as citizens
and create
a new way
to govern.
Satire aimed
at individuals,
especially
political rivals
The elite
Editorials
explaining
party policies
Crowds
read or listen
to several
newspapers
Educated
leaders
One editor
often
subsidized
by a party
Contributors still
use pseudonyms
Stories and
jokes to
discredit
opponents
One party is
pure and the
other is vile
(Leaders must
learn to view
opponents as honorable
men and to respect
diverse views.)
The most interesting development in this era is the emergence of the turbulent, feisty, stridently one-sided party
newspapers designed to help in nation building. However, commercial dailies continue to prosper. Some newspapers
still run items meant to show people how to live and texts of speeches but not announcements of them. The political
party papers were very popular and often read to pieces.
News--A Perpetually Evolving Social Institution
In these charts, please notice that while the definition of news (information people need to lead their daily lives)
stays the same, the interpretation changes. What information people require to be happy and productive in their
personal and public existence shifts over time as the social context evolves and new technology emerges.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Time
Forms
Interpretation
Content
Readers
Newspaper
Period
of Media
of the
of
Employees
Definition
Newspapers
of News
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Penny
Letters
What people
Court news
The multitude
Editor and
Press
need to know
Fables
Workers
small staff
More books
to survive
Immigrants
available
in the city
Unusual
Contributors
and be good
incidents
paid by the inch
A few
Americans
involving the
magazines
poor who often
Street corner
are described as
distribution
Drama troupes
buffoons
Circuses
Sports
Often adults
Disasters
worked as
Society items
newsies
Religious tracts
Wall Street items
Later children
(mostly boys)
Telegraph news
sold the papers.
Coverage
emphasizing rattlin’
good stories, uplift,
and public morals
Want ads
Theater and museum ads
Marriage and death notices
In1836 and after, two-column
Illustrated ads
Patent medicine ads
The big development in this time period is the emergence of the penny papers made possible partly by
technology--rag paper is not replaced by pulp paper until after the Civil War, but papermaking advances and so do
the presses. The tide of immigrants into the city also created an audience needing a quick introduction to American
culture.
News--A Perpetually Evolving Social Institution
In these charts, please notice that while the definition of news (information people need to lead their daily lives)
stays the same, the interpretation changes. What information people require to be happy and productive in their
personal and public existence shifts over time as the social context evolves and new technology emerges.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Time
Forms
Interpretation
Content
Readers
Newspaper
Period
of Media
of the
of
Employees
Definition
Newspapers
of News
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Civil
Penny papers
War news
Names
All
Reporters
War
Photos
Questions
War news
classes
Artists
about race
Facts
Correspondents
Telegraph
Terse style
Women
Photographers
news
are
Women on the payroll
Urban
discovered
Papers retain
survival
as potential
ideas (Greeley)
sketches
readers
based on
metro scenes
Magazines
Paperbacks
Cheap books
Circus
Ads
Magic lantern
Theater
Comics
Women’s items
Reprinted news
Battle news
Propaganda
Photos [sketched]
Testimonials
Box ads
Patent medicine ads
Want ads
From the past:
traits of six-cent
papers
During the Civil War, ordinary people became newsworthy when they went to the front. Names become crucial
as folks want to know who is injured or dead. The detailed accounts of the battles often do not follow our modern
style. Some, due to the influence of the telegraph, do begin with the result of the battle at the top in the headline and
first graph. Others retain the chronological, literary pattern that dominated many newspapers in the nineteenth
century.
Editors begin to ask reporters to tell compelling stories that contain factual details, particularly in Civil War
accounts. Local news remains a narrative to improve character and maintain values by showing readers what
happens to the lazy, the vicious, or the irresponsible.
Objectivity hasn’t arrived yet. News begins to displace the sermon as the source of insight into proper moral
behavior and condemnation of sins.
Still, photography emerges with artists doing line drawings based on the pictures.
News--A Perpetually Evolving Social Institution
In these charts, please notice that while the definition of news (information people need to lead their daily lives)
stays the same, the interpretation changes. What information people require to be happy and productive in their
personal and public existence shifts over time as the social context evolves and new technology emerges.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Time
Forms
Interpretation
Content
Readers
Newspaper
Period
of Media
of the
of
Employees
Definition
Newspapers
of News
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Gilded
Newspapers
Objectivity
Halftones
All classes
Editors and a staff
Age
Magazines
develops
emerge.
of reporters and
(1870Cheap books
slowly as
Immigrants
photographers
Dime novels
newspapers
Photos evolve. use papers
Movies
begin to see
to learn
Correspondents
Radio
themselves
Human
English and
(especially after 1920)
Theater
as separate
interest and
American
from fiction.
yellow press
social
Circus
stories about
customs.
Magic lantern
urban life
Debates
Oratory contests
National dinosaurbone hunting items
Telegraph news
Advertising
Inventions:
Color printing
Typewriters
Telephones
Electric light
Subway/street car
Airplanes
Automobiles
Bicycles
Department stores
Pooled news is
still important
Public relations
Leisure/ recreation/
vacations
(Beats expand from
police, sports, finance,
and women to science
and other topics.)
Journalism moves toward the modern concept of professionalism and its definition of news as objectivity.
However, the power of storytelling remains important, and early human-interest writers, like Nellie Bly and
Elizabeth Black, invoke drama, pathos, and humor to touch readers. The Fiction Factory thrived from about 1850
to the turn of the century. The Fiction Factory refers to the effort of free-lance writers to sell their stories, like
paragraphs, and news items to newspapers, magazines, and genre publishers. Many of them set up offices in their
homes and worked all day writing. Most earned a decent (but far from opulent) income. A few became widely
popular and lectured as well as published. They became wealthy. After 1900, the split between news and fiction
hurt them.