THE MEDIA TODAY since 1950

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THE MEDIA TODAY(since 1950)
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review

• Sloan thinks the media is central to the public
  interest, and
• Sloan thinks that 1900 1950 was CRUCIAL in the
  history of U.S. journalism

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1. The Massive Transition of the US from an
Agricultural Nation to an Industrial Nation
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2. Muckraking Reform (as a Response to a host
of new problems)
IDA TARBELL
JOURNALISM RESPONDS TO INDUSTRY, URBANIZATION,
POVERTY
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3. The Wave of National Crises

• World War I
• The Great Depression
• World War II
• The Cold War

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4. The Birth of the Electronic Media
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5. The Massive Growth of the Entertainment
Industry
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6. The Rise Fall of Mass Magazines
THE FORM THE MEDIA TAKES CHANGES! FROM 1900
1950, MASS MAGAZINES ARE BIG BUSINESS! MOST
COLLAPSE BY THE 1960s.
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7. The Emergence of ADVERTISING PUBLIC
RELATIONS as Huge Industries
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FO So what does all this mean for JOURNALISM
TODAY?

• TV RULES!
• NEWSPAPERS ARE IN TROUBLE!
• GOVT MEDIA DONT EXACTLY GET ALONG!
• THE MEDIA ITSELF IS UNDER SUSPICION!

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I. TODAY TELEVISION rules
TV BECOMES THE DOMINANT MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION
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TV was born as an entertainment medium

• 1946 6 local stations
• 1970 900 local stations
• 1951 first coast-to-coast live broadcast
• 1962 first LIVE trans-Atlantic broadcast

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TV NEWS replaces print news as Americans
preferred source of information

• 1948 CBS News with Douglas Edwards

• 1950s Chet Huntley David Brinkley

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WALTER CRONKITE CBS News (1963 1981)

• Golden Years of TV News
• Cronkites long experience as a print radio
  reporter
• Non-partisan
• Accurate
• Fast
• Innovative

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CBS News was the dominant power in the 1960s
1970s
EDWARD R. MURROW with WALTER CRONKITE, the most
respected CBS News reporters
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BUT TV is also a source of entertainment!

• Entertainment?
• Popular arts can be as sophisticated as high
  art
• Insight into others lives
• Insight into our own
• lives

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BUT TV is also a source of entertainment!

• Entertainment?
• Diversion away from reality
• Simplistic (so you dont have to go to the
  trouble to think!)
• Sex Violence in the service of
• Unrestrained Consumption

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Early TVs lowest point the Quiz Show Scandals
of the 1950s

• Are show contestants coached?
• TVs ability to produce fake realities

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Does bad entertainment infect TV journalism?

• 1950s The Jack Paar Show
• First Talk Show
• TV EASILY MIXES ENTERTAINMENT AND NEWS WHICH IS
  WHICH?
• Info-tainment mix of gossip information

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The Talk Show becomes central to television

• Incredibly cheap to produce (no reporting, no
  investigating)
• Yet extremely profitable
• Mild, comic chit-chat (Johnny Carson)
• To shocking outrageous (Jerry Springer)

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Entertainment Tonight!
TV FORMATS THAT PRETEND TO BE REAL SO, WHAT
IS REALITY?
Reality TV
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II. TODAY NEWSPAPERS are in trouble

• TV drives papers out of business
• Chains gobble up local papers
• Chains increase profits by producing generic
  news cutting news staff
• Increasing UNIFORMITY DECLINING QUALITY

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1966 Death of the NY Herald Tribune
TRIBUNE made famous by HORACE GREELEY
HERALD made famous by JAMES GORDON BENNETT
The international version survives, but the New
York City edition is gone
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True, some papers have actually grown
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• USA TODAY
• Founded 1982
• Light news short articles, lots of pictures
• Generic national news huge press run, handful
  of reporters
• Factoids curious trivia
• Person-in-the-street focus (as Mary Jones of
  Seattle says
• Sports Entertainment news
• Aggressive marketing motels, hotels, airports

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But local newspapers are rapidly dying
IF LOCAL NEWSPAPERS DIE OUT, HOW WILL PEOPLE KEEP
INFORMED?
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III. TODAY The relationship between the media
the government is very difficult

• Patriotism

• Truth-telling

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McCARTHY in the 1950s does objectivity mean
reporting what politicians say or finding out
whats true?
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EDWARD R. MURROW Were these claims true?
MCCARTHY MADE SWEEPING CLAIMS ABOUT COMMUNISTS
IN THE US GOVERNMENT
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• EDWARD R. MURROW LED THE ATTACK ON SENATOR
  MCCARTHY.
• MURROW ASKED
• NOT ONLY WHAT DID MCCARTHY SAY?
• (B) BUT ALSO WAS WHAT MCCARTHY SAID TRUE?

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The Media Civil Rights

• From missing the story entirely in the 1950s
  theres nothing wrong with the USA!
• To accepting the story on the Front Page there
  are deep problems in the USA!

EMMETT TILL STORY (1955)
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US v. Sullivan (1964)

• In the South, wave of libel lawsuits against
  media for broadcasting civil rights stories
• US Supreme Court rules that actual malice of
  intention must be proven before media can be
  punished
• VICTORY FOR FREE PRESS

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VIETNAM (1961 1973)

• From support the war effort
• To the government is systematically lying about
  the war

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(No Transcript)
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Presidents the Press

• Truman is the first TV President

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Presidents the Press

• Nixons Checkers Speech (1952)

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Presidents the Press

• 1960 Presidential Debates
• First televised presidential debate
• APPEARANCE COUNTS!
• HUGE IMPACT ON ELECTION

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Presidents the Press

• 1963 Kennedys Assassination
• THE BIRTH OF REAL-TIME TV NEWS REPORTING

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(No Transcript)
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Lee Harvey Oswald murdered on live TV by
Jack Ruby
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1968 The Selling of the President(Joe McGinniss)
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WATERGATE (1972-1974)

• The Media brings down the President?
• Or
• The President brings himself down?

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THE NEW JOURNALISM of the 1970s

• Tom Wolfe
• Gay Talese
• Truman Capote
• Highly personal suspicious
• Dont report story
• Report my reaction to the story

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Hunter Thompson the New Journalism
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IV. TODAY The Press itself is the target of
suspicion

• THE MEDIAS TOO CRITICAL!
• THE MEDIA ISNT CRITICAL ENOUGH!
• Should the govt do something? the FCC
• Stronger media ethics?
• Develop more alternatives to existing media?

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DO WE NEED AN ALTERNATIVE TO CORPORATE
MEDIA? WILL THE INTERNET PROVIDE AN ALTERNATIVE?