 Colonial period – Benjamin Harris’ Publick Occurences Both Forreign and
Domestick
 Printed on stationery size paper and the fourth was left blank so readers could add their own news before passing it on.
 Authorities were not pleased with content so paper was shut down after one issue

 First Continually published newspaper came 14 years later
 The Boston News-Letter premiered on April 24, 1704.
 Paper appeared on a single page, printed on both sides, issued weekly
 News was mostly from London telling about English politics and events of
European wards
 Also included items listing ship arrivals, deaths, sermons, political appointments, fires, accidents, etc
 **Only paper to tell about Blackbeard the pirate being killed in hand-tohand combat

 Publisher of New York Weekly
Journal
 Accused and tried for libel against the colonial British government in
1735. His printing press was burned by Colonial authorities.

 Found innocent and verdict helped pave the way for a free, independent press in America.
 From this time on, it was considered proper for the press to question and criticize the government.

 Became one of the most famous journalists in the Colonial Era.
 At 12 years old, he became a printing apprentice for his brother.
 At 17, he ran away from home to
Pennsylvania. He worked at a paper there and eventually bought the Pennsylvania
Gazette.

 Became the best of its era.
 Join or Die was the famous editorial cartoon in the paper Snake is labeled with all 13 colonies.

 The first student newspaper, The Students Gazette, was founded in
Pennsylvania in 1977

 Arrived on the scene in 1833. Opened the New York Sun and created the
Penny Press.

 Newspapers of the day cost about 10 cents each… too expensive for most people. Day took advantage of the fact that he could print thousands of papers per day and sold them for a penny each.
 He also changed the content of newspapers to make it more sensational and popular to the lower class.
 Hired boys to sell the newspapers on the street.
 Added advertising to help cover the cost of the newspaper printing.

 One of the most influential papers was the New York Tribune founded by
Horace Greeley in 1841 – its weekly edition had more than 200,000 subscribers
 The New York Times was founded in 1851 by Henry Raymond
 It was not unusual for a city to have 8 or 9 competing newspapers

 The Civil War era brought “new” technology to the publishing industry. Photography became the popular addition to newspapers.
 Matthew Brady set up a camera on the battlefields.

 The invention of the telegraph helped speed up the news. Reporters were able to send encoded news back to their papers as it was happening.
 Abraham Lincoln became the first president to direct armies in the field from the
White House directly.

 The telegraph wires went down on a regular basis. This meant the story was sometimes cut off before it was finished.
 To help this, reporters developed “the inverted pyramid” to put the most important facts at the beginning of the story.

 As newspapers began to compete more with one another in circulation and advertising, different styles of journalism emerged.
 In the mid 1890s, Pulitzer and Hearst transformed newspapers with sensational and scandalous news coverage, the use of drawings, and the inclusion of features like comic strips.

 When Pulitzer began publishing color comic sections that included “The
Yellow Kid” in 1896, the papers were labeled “yellow journalism.”
 The movement became unethical and involved hoaxes, altered photos, frauds, and “scoops.”

 Elizabeth Cochrane wrote under the name Nellie Bly.
 Wrote under cover to expose many things wrong in cities after industrial boom
 Mostly wrote about women
 Directed writing at upper class to motivate them to help lower class who were not represented anywhere else

 Bly went under cover to expose conditions of insane by pretending to be crazy and getting herself committed. She also investigated sweat shops, perry crime, and Corps de Ballet undercover.

 In 1906, Dr. Lee De Forest made improvements to the vacuum tube that made the new medium of radio possible.
 De Forrest made the first newscast in 1916,
 Regular daily programs started in Detroit in 1920
 National Broadcasting Company (NBC) formed in 1926
 Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1927
 Mutual Broadcasting System in 1934, was sold and renamed American
Broadcasting Company (ABC)

 Airwaves needed regulations
 In 1912, a law was passed to assign wavelengths to applicants
 The Radio Act of 1927 broadened the power and created the Federal
Communication Commission (FCC which has power over both radio and television.

 First television newscast took pace in 1940
 TV took much of the entertainment role away from radio and claimed much of the breaking news role held by newspapers
 Papers today put less emphasis on breaking news

 In 1972, two burglars were caught stealing from a government building.
The incident was made national when two reporters, Carl Bernstein and
Bob Woodward, were able to tie it to the president.
 A famous, yet anonymous, source labeled “Deep Throat” helped uncover the story.
 In 2005 Mark Felt announced that he was Deep Throat.
 The publicity led to Nixon’s impeachment and resignation.

 In 1982, using satellite transmissions and color presses, the Gannett chain established the USA Today, published and circulated it throughout the USA,
Europe, and Asia.
 The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and USA Today are read all over the country.
 Small towns or rural districts usually have daily or weekly local papers
 Local papers are usually filled with political information

 The shift of the American population into the suburbs and alternative media outlets have forced large city newspapers to merge, cease publication, or be taken over by chains of publishers.
 Gannett Company
 Knight-Ridder, Inc

 Reuters in England
 Agence France-Presse in France
 Associated Press and United Press International in USA
 Sell services to newspapers, write articles for them that can be published by anyone who pays fees

 Improvements have enhanced the quality of print and made publications much faster.
 Newspapers are primarily supported by sale of advertising space.
 Computers have also greatly impacted production of news and newspapers.

 By the 1990s, technology had deeply impacted newspapers.
 During the 90s, the first independent daily newspaper appeared on the
Internet.
 By 2000, 700 papers published their news electronically before the print edition was available.

 Many newspapers are publishing their work online.
 Some only allow readers to see headlines. To get full stories, you must pay a membership fee and log on.

 Political Watchdog – monitor activities of government
 Entertainment – not everything is serious. We need comic relief, comic strips, advice from Dear Abby, MTV.
 Social – provide topics to talk about in the hallway, around the watercooler, over coffee at Starbucks
 Economic – advertising helps stimulate economy and provide info to customers
 Record Keeping – we know who is born, gets married, gets divorced, dies, who won the game, etc.