History of Journalism

1
History of Journalism

• Colonial newspapers, Revolutionary newspapers,
  Party Press, Penny Press, and Civil War coverage

2
American Colonial Newspapers

• Word of mouth written communication from
  England (4-8 weeks to cross the Atlantic)
• Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick
  (published by Benjamin Harris on Sept. 25, 1690)
• Boston News-letter (published by John Campbell on
  April 24, 1704), published by authority

3

• 1734 - New York Weekly Journal (published by John
  Peter Zenger)
• Charged with libel for printing news that
  disturbed the Gov. of NY (tried in 1735 and found
  not guilty because he printed the truth)
• Layout 4 pages long and half the size of a
  modern newspaper, did not usually have headlines,
  could not print more than 200 copies per hour, no
  separation between editorials and news, only 5
  of families could afford the papers in 1765
  (considered a luxury)
• Types war politics local/international news
  piracy, fires, counterfeiting, robberies
  maritime news weather (no forecasts)
  obituaries religion little/no sports

4
American Revolutionary War Newspapers

• Stamp Act of 1765-Britain taxed all legal
  documents, official papers, books, newspapers
  (repealed in 1766)
• Many newspapers published as handbills
• Many newspapers sided with the patriots (many
  historians believe that w/out newspapers, the
  Rev. War would have never taken place
• Layout larger pages, more illustrations, and
  more columns

5

• Coverage of the war-no reports from the
  battlefields based upon private letters
  stories from other newspapers primary coverage
  given to struggle against taxes and duties and
  secondary coverage given to actual war
• Papers also reported accidents, fires, storms,
  epidemics, and crime
• Had larger headlines
• New York Journal - italicized their editorials,
  and other papers found other ways to separate
  them from the news

6
Party Press

• Newspapers began to line up with political
  parties (partisan press)
• First American consistently published newspapers
• Pennsylvania Evening Post (Benjamin Town, 1783)
• Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser (John
  Dunlap, 1785)
• New York Daily Advertiser (1785)

7

• Why daily papers?
• Provide businessmen w/up-to-the-minute news of
  sailing vessels
• Provide the latest political news and thought
• Gazette of the United States (published by John
  Fenno in 1789) Federalist newspaper that
  received contributions from Alexander Hamilton
  and John Adams lasted until 1818
• National Gazette (published by Philip Freneau in
  1791) attacked Adams and Hamilton last until
  1793

8

• Editorials first appeared as a separate column in
  1793 in the American Minerva (published by Noah
  Webster)
• Contents European news (2 months old), news from
  other papers
• George Washingtons death died on Sat., Dec. 14,
  1799. The following Monday, the Alexandria Times
  (VA) published the news. The Virginia Sentinal
  published it on Wednesday the Philadelphia
  Aurora published it on Thursday New York
  published it one week later Boston got it 11
  days later
• Subscription rates were 6-10/year for dailies,
  2-3/year for weeklies, and country papers were
  traded for corn, wheat, linen, sugar, etc.

9

• War of 1812 coverage domestic news took priority
  over international news arrived by mail, through
  messages, and by faster news sources
• James Bradford-became first war correspondent by
  enlisting in Andrew Jacksons army in New
  Orleans news of Jacksons victory in N.O.
  reached NY one month after the event
• Layout still 4 pages, but enlarged to 6/7
  columns pg. 1 was ¾ advertising ¼ political
  essay pg. 2 contained foreign and domestic news
  w/letters to the editor pg. 3 had an editorial
  column, local news items and advertising pg. 4
  was completely devoted to advertising

10

• Livelier headlines ALMOST INCREDIBLE VICTORY
  and GLORIOUS TRIUMPH
• A Baltimore paper published The Star Spangled
  Banner a few hours after Key wrote it

11
Penny Press

• Mechanical advancements of Industrial Rev.
  cheaper printing methods for larger quantities
• Population growth caused an increase in demand
  for papers in 1833, there were 3x as many
  newspapers in U.S. than in England or France
• New York Sun (founded in 1833 by Benjamin Day)
  first official penny press 4 pages w/three wide
  columns and emphasized local, human interest, and
  sensational events popularized police-court
  reports

12

• New York Herald (founded in 1835 by James Gordon
  Bennett) contained financial news and built up
  murder trials to peak interest started society
  columns carried crime stories scandals
  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 NY
  harbors
• New York Tribune (founded in 1841 by Horace
  Greeley) known for is outstanding staff for
  denouncing the publishing of police reports,
  advertisements, theater news politically
  active fought slavery, wanted to improve
  conditions of the poor unemployed, attacked the
  slum conditions of NY, opposed capital
  punishment, favored the prohibition of alcohol,
  advocated westward expansion
• Greeley ran for presidential nomination in 1872
  (lost)

13

• Layout increase in local/hometown news greater
  emphasis on sensational news
• Papers news could move faster due to
  steamships, railroads and the telegraph
• Telegraph invented in 1844, but its impact was
  really felt during Civil War where reporters at
  the battle sites could transmit their stories
• Newspapers spread to Kansas City, San Francisco,
  etc. due to westward expansion
• Associated Press started in 1848 included the
  Sun, Herald, Tribune, and Times

14
Civil War Coverage

• Eyewitness correspondents 1/3 of their columns
  to war coverage much rumor in the news
  headlines read Important-if true Rumors and
  Speculations
• News style stories printed in full not
  summarized dispatches were likely to printed
  chronologically the oldest news was at the head
  of the column following the story was a list of
  soldiers killed, wounded, and missing war maps
  were used lead became the tool to finding out
  the essential information the inverted pyramid
  was born

15

• No organized censorship of the news, but
  confederate generals tried to get to northern
  papers to obtain information because newspapers
  usually printed news of troop movements and war
  plans
• More inventions came along telephone (1875),
  typewriter (1876), typesetter (1886), and
  engraving (1894)