History of American Journalism

1
History of Journalism in America Part 2
2
First true American daily newspapers

• Pennsylvania Evening Post Benjamin Towne, May
  30, 1783
• Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser John
  Dunlap, Sept. 21, 1785
• New York Daily Advertiser 1785

3
Reasons for daily newspapers

• To provide businessmen with up-to-minute news of
  sailing vessels
• To provide latest political news and thought
• Time of great political and economic change
• Bigger demand from people
• More advertising

4
Gazette of the United States

• Federalist newspaper first appearing on April 15,
  1789
• Published by John Fenno
• "Peter Porcupine" (William Cobbett) nastiest
  writer
• Received written contributions from Alexander
  Hamilton and John Adams
• Continued until 1818

5
National Gazette

• Republican (Democrat) newspaper founded Oct. 31,
  1791
• Published by Philip Freneau Benjamin Franklin
  Bache
• Attacked Hamilton and Adams
• Continued until 1793

6
Party papers
To strengthen their coalitions and hammer away
constantly at the opposition, both parties
sponsored newspapers in the capital
(Philadelphia) and other major cities. On the
Republican side, Philip Freneau and Benjamin
Franklin Bache blasted the administration with
all the scurrility at their command. Bache in
particular targeted Washington himself as the
front man for monarchy who must be exposed. To
Bache, Washington was a cowardly general and a
money-hungry baron who saw the Revolution as a
means to advance his fortune and fame, Adams was
a failed diplomat who never forgave the French
their love of Benjamin Franklin and who craved a
crown for himself and his descendants, and
Alexander Hamilton was the most inveterate
monarchist of them all. The Federalists, with
twice as many newspapers at their command,
slashed back with equal vengeance John Fenno and
"Peter Porcupine" (William Cobbett) were their
nastiest pensmen, and Noah Webster their most
learned Hamilton subsidized the Federalist
editors, wrote for their papers, and in 1801
established his own paper, the New York Evening
Post. The papers claimed the Republican-Democrats
were nothing more than people who relied on mob
rule and pandered to the common man
7
Party politics - election of 1796

• Hamilton distrusted Vice President Adams, but was
  unable to block his claims to the succession. The
  election of 1796 was the first partisan affair in
  the nation's history, and one of the more
  scurrilous in terms of newspaper attacks. Adams
  swept New England and Jefferson the South, with
  the middle states leaning to Adams. Thus Adams
  was the winner by a margin of three electoral
  votes, and Jefferson, as the runner-up, became
  Vice President under the system set out in the
  Constitution prior to the ratification of the
  12th Amendment.
• Foreign affairs continued to be the central
  concern of American politics, for the war raging
  in Europe threatened to drag in the United
  States. The new President was a loner, who made
  decisions without consulting Hamilton or other
  High Federalists.
• Benjamin Franklin once quipped that Adams was a
  man always honest, often brilliant, and sometimes
  mad. Adams was popular among the Federalist rank
  and file, but had neglected to build state or
  local political bases of his own, and neglected
  to take control of his own cabinet. As a result
  his cabinet answered more to Hamilton than to
  himself.

8
Alien and Sedition Acts

• The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills
  passed in 1798 by the Federalists in the United
  States Congresswhich was waging an undeclared
  naval war with France, later known as the
  Quasi-Warand signed into law by President John
  Adams to silence Administration critics, the
  Federalists passed the Sedition Act. Several
  opposition editors were convicted and fined or
  sent to jail. The Alien Act empowered the
  President to deport such aliens as he deemed to
  be dangerous.
• Proponents claimed the acts were designed to
  protect the United States from alien citizens of
  enemy powers and to stop seditious attacks from
  weakening the government.
• The Democratic-Republicans, like later
  historians, attacked them as being both
  unconstitutional and designed to stifle criticism
  of the administration, and as infringing on the
  right of the states to act in these areas.
• They became a major political issue in the
  elections of 1798 and 1800. One act the Alien
  Enemies Act is still in force in 2008, and has
  frequently been enforced in wartime. The others
  expired or were repealed by 1802.
• Thomas Jefferson held them all to be
  unconstitutional and void, then pardoned and
  ordered the release of all who had been convicted
  of violating them.

9
Freedom of the press

• Nine of the 13 state constitutions guaranteed
  freedom of the press
• Freedom guaranteed nationally through the First
  Amendment of U.S. in 1789

10
Editorials

• First appeared in separate column in 1793 in the
  American Minerva published by Noah Webster
• In 1800, the Philadelphia Aurora used its second
  page for editorials

11
Contents

• European news (two months old)
• News from other papers
• News of George Washingtons death
• Washington died on Saturday night, Dec. 14, 1799
• First news appeared in the daily Alexandria (Va.)
  Times the following Monday
• News appeared in the weekly Virginia Sentinel on
  Wednesday
• News appeared in the Philadelphia Auroraon
  Thursday
• News reached New York newspapers exactly one week
  after his death
• News reached Boston 11 days after his death

12
Subscription Rates

• 6 to 10 a year for dailies
• 2 to 3 a year for weeklies
• Country papers traded for corn, wheat, linen,
  sugar, etc.

13
War of 1812 coverage

• Domestic news became more important than foreign
  news
• News arrived by mail, through messages from
  officers to friends at home, by newspapers that
  received news first
• James Bradford became first war correspondent by
  enlisting in Andrew Jacksons army in New Orleans
  
• News of Jacksons victory in New Orleans reached
  New York a month after the event

14
Nature of newspaper in early 1800s

• Four pages, but enlarged to 6 or 7 columns wide
• a. Page 1 three-fourths advertising remainder,
  political essay
• b. Page 2 foreign and domestic news with
  letters to the editor
• c. Page 3 editorial column, local items and
  advertising
• d. Page 4 advertising
• Headlines more lively than in previous period
• a. ALMOST INCREDIBLE VICTORY! defeat of
  British in New Orleans
• b. GLORIOUS TRIUMPH Double column
• The Star-Spangled Banner was first published in
  a Baltimore paper a few hours after Francis Scott
  Key wrote it, and many think this dissemination
  may have contributed to its later selection as
  the national anthem

15

• All that is needed for newspapers to become
  a mass medium is a good idea. Along comes
  Benjamin Day in 1833. Day opened the New York Sun
  and created the Penny Press.

16
Penny Press and the Industrial Revolution

• Mechanical advancements provided cheaper printing
  methods and larger quantity
• Population growth caused increase in the number
  of newspapers
• Three times as many newspapers in the United
  States in 1833 as in England or France (larger
  proportion by 1860)
• Steam power increases the speed by which news
  travels (Ships and trains)
• Steam powered presses can print up to 4,000
  copies an hour

17
First Penny Newspapers

• New York Morning Post Jan. 1, 1833, Dr. H. D.
  Shepard
• First appeared at 2 cents, then 1 cent
• Lasted only two and one half weeks
• New York Sun Sept. 3, 1833, Benjamin Day
• Four pages, small, three wide columns
• Emphasized local, human-interest and sensational
  events
• Popular feature police-court reports
• In August 1835, the Sun published the moon hoax
• Soon publishing 19,000 newspapers daily

18

• Newspapers of the day cost about 10 cents
  each . . . too expensive for the masses. But
  there was a large literate audience out there.
  Day took advantage of the fact that he could
  print thousands of papers inexpensively and sold
  the papers for a penny each.  

19

• He also changed the content of newspapers to
  make it more sensational and more popular to the
  lower class. He hired boys to hawk the newspapers
  on street corners. It was the Penny Press that
  also began using advertising as a way to bring
  readers information, but advertising also helped
  by paying for the printing and distribution of
  newspapers.

20

• Cheap newspapers sold to the workers were a
  hit. His idea was huge success and newspapers
  crossed that line that made them truly mass
  media. Others were quick to follow his lead. They
  became so powerful that they were called Lords of
  the Press.

21
New York Herald

• May 6, 1835, James Gordon Bennett
• Contained financial news
• Built up a murder trial to great interest
• Started society columns
• Established a European correspondent, set up a
  Washington bureau, placed his own correspondents
  in leading American cities, bought a small fleet
  of boats to meet ships before they entered New
  York harbors
• Carried crime stories, scandals
• By 1860, 77,000 daily newspapers

22
New York Tribune

• April 10, 1841, Horace Greeley
• Weekly Tribune, started by Greeley in 1841 and
  distributed throughout U.S., becomes most
  respected paper in nation
• Pioneers the editorial page
• Denounced publishing of police reports,
  advertisements and news of the theater
• Politics
• Fought slavery
• Wanted to improve conditions of the poor and
  unemployed
• Attacked the slum conditions of New York
• Opposed capital punishment
• Favored prohibition of alcohol
• Advocated westward expansion (Go west, young
  man go west!)
• Greeley nominated Abraham Lincoln for the
  presidency in 1860
• Greeley ran for the nomination of president in
  1872, was humiliated and died soon after

23
Changes in news concepts

• Increase of local or hometown news
• Great emphasis on sensational news
• More coverage of crime reporting
• Many specialized newspapers
• Faster communication
• Steamships
• Railroads
• Telegraph
• Associated Press
• Started in May 1848
• Six newspapers including the Sun, Herald,
  Tribune, then Times

24
Other important figures

• John B. Russworm and Samuel Cornish Freedoms
  Journal, 1st African American newspaper
• William Lloyd Garrison 1831-1865 The Liberator,
  abolitionist newspaper
• Elias Lovejoy another abolitionist publisher
  who is killed by a pro-slavery mob Colby College
  gives a press freedom award in his name
• Elias Boudinot (Buck Deer) Cherokee Phoenix,
  1st Native American newspaper killed because of
  his views
• Margaret Fuller 1st woman hired by a major U.S.
  daily, the NY Tribune, 1st female foreign
  correspondent her book Women in the 19th Century
  starts national drive for womens rights
• Sara Josepha Hale editor of Godeys Ladys
  Book, the top womens magazine in the nation for
  40 years