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- Contemporary Media
- Newspapers
- Daily Acts
- Acta Diaruna, 59 BCE
- European news, 1500–1600s
- German financial news
- Italian gazettas
- Dutch corantos
- England’s Daily Courant
- British licensing and censorship
- by authority
- John Milton’s Areopagitica, 1644
- marketplace of ideas
- Early US Newspapers
- Benjamin Harris, Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestic, 1690
- John Campbell, Boston News-Letter, by authority, 1702
- Partisan Press
- James Franklin, New England Courant, by no-authority, 1721
- Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728
- John Peter Zenger, New York Weekly Journal, 1733
- critical of British governor of New York
- charged with libel
- Alexander Hamilton, “truth is the ultimate defense of libel”
- Penny Press
- industrialization of print
- lower costs of newspapers
- reached larger audience
- reached across party lines
- spoke a common language
- New York Sun
- Benjamin Day, 1833
- first low-cost daily mass newspaper
- sales and advertising
- newsboys
- Yellow Journalism
- circulation war
- Joseph Pulitzer, New York World
- William Randolph Hearst, New York Journal
- general population readership
- sensational photos
- large headlines
- human interest stories
- hoaxes and fake interviews
- Muckraking
- Progressive Era, early 1900s
- exposed filth and raked away the muck
- exposed corruption
- called for reform
- Chains and Conglomerates
- chain ownership began 1920s
- Hearst
- Scripps-Howard
- Harry Chandler, Times-Mirror
- Frank Gannett, Gannett
- John Knight, Knight-Ridder
- erosion of diversity
- conglomerates today present similar problems
- Professional Journalism
- move from free press to social responsibility model
- professional education
- accredited journalism programs
- pressure from government established social responsibility model
- Competition
- 1920s, radio offered immediate headlines
- newspapers offered analysis and intrepretation
- 1950s, television appealed to national advertisers
- newspapers grew increasingly local
- Watchdog Role
- Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
- Pentagon Papers, 1971
- Watergate Scandal, 1972–1974
- Information Age
- advertising-supported medium
- online paywalls
- mobile devices
- online aggregators
- born-digital news websites
- citizen journalists
- Technology and News Gathering
- radio, broadcast television, and cable-satellite channels
- police radio communication
- Twitter
- computer assisted reporting
- data journalism
- backpack journalism
- Technology and News Reading
- 1980s experiments
- digital news reading
- cuts costs
- adaptability on desktop, tablet, mobile screens
- personalization
- “Daily Me”
- social media news sharing
- Dailies
- published at least five times per week
- declined in numbers
- National dailies
- Wall Street Journal
- USA Today
- Metropolitan and Suburban Dailies
- circulation decline
- online-only
- instant web/limited print
- Local and Specialized Weeklies
- published fewer four times per week
- covers areas too small to support a daily
- alternative press
- free weeklies supported by advertising
- News Wire Services
- Associated Press
- Agence France-Press, France
- Reuters, Britain
- Interfax, Russia
- Gannett
- Bloomberg
- King Features Syndicate
- Conglomeration and Consolidation
- consolidating with radio, television, cable and Internet
- vertically integration
- local market monopolies
- editorials could be politically problematic
- reduced choice for advertisers and readers
- weakened cross-ownership regulations, 1980s
- joint-operating agreements
- consolidated business operations
- separate editorial operations
- Ethical Matters
- plagiarism
- fabrication
- anonymous sources
- validating them
- shielding them
- gatekeeping role
- Legal Matters
- public’s right to know
- libel
- printing false and damaging statements about private individuals
- true statements are not libelous
- watchdogs and public individuals
- invasion of privacy
- tabloid journalism
- pay sources for information
- challenge from online blogs
- Role of Contemporary Newspapers
- political and business elites
- international news
- editors as gatekeepers
- editors as curators
- computers are poor at replicating human judgement and intuition
- “information glut”