Juan Monroy — Media Technologies: Class 4, Newspapers

1 Traditional Information Networks
- 1.1 Catholic Church
- 1.2 Political State
- 1.3 Commercial Activity
- 1.4 Traveling Networks
2 15th and 16 Century Networks Changes
- 2.1 postal networks
  - expanded delivery
- 2.2 printed newspapers
  - reliable supply of news
  - “corantos”
  - postmaster’s news
  - foreign news
  - low circulation
- 2.3 Domestic Newspapers in England
  - Star Chamber decree, 1586
  - licensed and censored newspapers
  - Samuel Buckley’s Daily Courant (1702)
  - Stamp Act, 1712: tax on newspapers
- 2.4 Enlightenment: freedom of press
  - England
    - philosophers: Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill
    - liberal democracy
  - United States
    - Constitution
    - First Amendment
  - France
    - French Revolution, 1789
    - Declaration of Human Rights
3 Early American Newspapers
- 3.1 needed blessing and approval from the British Crown
- 3.2 Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestic (1690)
  - Benjamin Harris
  - scandalized stories
  - shut down after one issue
- 3.3 Boston News-Letter (1704)
  - John Campbell
  - received blessing of the British Crown
  - thrived for 72 years, until Independence
- 3.4 New England Courant
  - James Franklin
  - had no authority
  - jailed and forbidden to publish
  - passed to brother Benjamin
- 3.5 Pennsylvanian Gazette
  - Ben Franklin’s paper
  - published articles about independence
4 Partisan Press
- 4.1 John Peter Zenger
  - New York Weekly Journal
  - openly criticized British governor of New York (1733)
  - charged with libel
  - argued that truth was the defense of libel
- 4.2 Benjamin Franklin
  - Join or Die cartoon (1754)
  - urged colonies to unite against the British
- 4.3 political press built support for the American revolution
  - defined the role of the free press
  - published Declaration of Independence (1776)
  - covered debates over the Constitution (1787)
- 4.4 First Amendment
  - protection of freedom of speech and freedom of the press
- 4.5 Sedition
  - speech that undermines the government
  - Alien and Sedition Act
    - passed 1798
    - Federalists
    - combat opposition to going to war with France
    - were not renewed in 1800
  - functions as a limitation to a free press
5 Industrialization
- 5.1 technological innovations
  - rotary press
  - telegraph
- 5.2 lower cost
  - price drops to one cent
- 5.3 broader audiences
  - not just elites
  - non-partisan
  - urban audiences become newspapers readers
6 Penny Press
- 6.1 Newspapers become Mass Media
  - mid–1800s
  - United States and Britain
  - reached larger audience
  - reached across party lines
  - spoke a common language
- 6.2 New York Sun
  - launched 1833
  - Benjamin Day
  - sold for a penny
  - advertising
  - recruited newsboys
- 6.3 New York Herald
  - launched 1858
  - published news promptly
  - daily coverage
    - business
    - sports
    - women’s news
  - advertising
    - classified advertising
    - required new ads everyday
- 6.4 Telegraph
  - Samuel Morse (1844)
  - first time communication faster than travel
  - increased speed and reach of news gathering
- 6.5 Associated Press
  - wire services
  - founded 1848
  - New York newspapers share news
  - sold news to distant newspapers
- 6.6 Civil War
  - covered debate over slavery
  - provided “immediate” news of the conflict
  - expanded readership
7 New Journalism
- 7.1 competition
  - large headlines
  - gossip
  - emotional pictures
- 7.2 coverage
  - more news: latest event of the day
  - less editorials and essays
- 7.3 anti-corruption
  - New York Times (1870) campaigned against Boss Tweed
  - Harpers Weekly political cartoons denounced corrupt politicians
- 7.4 photographs
  - photographic printing (1880)
  - text and photographs on the same page
8 Yellow Press
- 8.1 Circulation War
  - William Randolph Hearst
  - Joseph Pulitzer
  - “Yellow Kid”
- 8.2 Pulitzer
  - Hungarian immigrant
  - St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1878)
  - New York World
    - purchased 1883
    - underdog’s newspaper
    - hired Nellie Bly
- 8.3 Hearst
  - bought New York Journal (1895)
    - imitated success of Pulitzer
  - Spanish-American War
    - spectacular coverage of the USS Maine
    - blamed Spanish for explosion in Havana
- 8.4 Competition
  - revenue and profit based on advertising and subscriptions
  - can’t compete on price, compete with product
    - sensational photos and headlines
      - crime
      - disaster
      - scandals
      - intrigue
    - personality and human interest stories
    - hoaxes and fake interviews
  - formidable competition in over-saturated newspaper markets
- 8.5 Adolph Ochs
  - bought New York Times (1896)
  - deliberately avoided tactics of the Yellow press
  - stressed objectivity
    - reports for business, legal professions, political leaders
    - book and theater reviews
    - general audience and intellectuals
  - “won’t soil the breakfast cloth”
  - introduced “inverted pyramid” style
- 8.6 Legacy
  - muckrakers
  - Progressive Era
  - expose-and-reform cycle
9 Peak of American Newspapers
- 9.1 Between 1890 and 1920
  - 1,967 English-language dailies
  - 562 cities
  - New York had 29 daily newspapers
- 9.2 major players
  - Hearst
  - Scripps-Howard
  - Harry Chandler (Times-Mirror)
  - Frank Gannett (Gannett)
  - John Knight (Knight-Ridder)
- 9.3 mergers and consolidation
  - many newspapers closed after 1920
  - concerns about monopolies and oligopolies
  - news wire services
    - Associated Press
    - United Press
    - International News Service
- 9.4 Social Responsibility
  - monitor the ethics of their own writing
  - professionalization
  - college education
  - code of ethics
10 Competition
- 10.1 radio
  - late 1920s
  - more current headlines
- 10.2 Interpretative Journalism
  - Walter Winchell
  - “Responsibilities of the Press”
    - to make a current record
    - to make a running analysis
    - on the basis of both, to suggest plans
- 10.3 television
  - could show pictures, like newspapers
  - newspapers remained social and political institutions