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History of Newspaper Journalism. An Introduction. Cave drawings could be considered the first newspapers, but they never had much chance for mass circulation.
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History of Newspaper Journalism An Introduction
Cave drawings could be considered the first newspapers, but they never had much chance for mass circulation.
German blacksmith and inventor Johannes Gutenberg devised the first printing pressaround1450. Oneof his firstprojects was publishinga Bible.
Weekly newspapers started appearing in most European countries in the 17th Century, but operated under strict government control. By mid-century, a movement in England was arguing for press freedom.
The first English-language daily was the Courant, published on March 11, 1702. It consisted of just one page and lasted until 1735.
In 1690, book publisher Benjamin Harris distributed the first multi-page newspaper in the American colonies. Because it criticized the British government, it was closed after one issue.
Fourteen years later, the Boston News-Letter began publishing and became the first to survive in the colonies. Supported by the British and writing mostly about foreign issues, the paper survived until 1776.
Benjamin Franklin, 23,purchased thePennsylvania Gazette in 1729, turning it into the most popular paper in the colonies. He had previous worked for his brother’s paper in Boston.
In 1734, John Peter Zenger, publisher of the Weekly Journal of New York, was arrested and charged with seditious libel for printing critical statements about the Britishgovernor of the colonies.His lawyer argued thatthe court’s refusal toaccept the truth as a defense proved that thesystem was unjust and Zenger was innocent.The jury agreed.
The Zenger case wasthe basis for the First Amendmentof the Bill ofRights,which guarantees freedom of the press.
Two inventions during the 19th century drastically changed newspaper journalism: photography in the 1830s and expand use of the telegraph in the 1850s.
Newspapers thrived during the 19th century because of the interest in the divisive issue of slavery and the resulting Civil War. Because of telegraph communication andphotographs,newspapers couldreport on the warin ways neverseen before.
Horace Greeley founded the New York Tribune in 1841and it became the mostinfluential paper of theera. As editor and publisher, Greeleyshaped public opinionon many issues, wasa leading anti-slaveryspokesman and an advocate for the western expansion of the U.S.
In 1851, HenryJarvis Raymond and George Jonesfounded theNew-York DailyTimes. Six yearslater it was renamedthe New York Times. Adolph Ochs purchased the paper in 1896 (his heirs still run the paper) and it quickly became one of the leading papers in the country, a position it still holds.
At age 25, journalistJoseph Pulitzer boughtthe St. LouisPost-Dispatch in 1872and a few years laterthe New York World.By writing extensivelyabout corrupt government officials, his papers became the most popular in their cities.
In Pulitzer’s will he established a fund to offer yearly prizes to the best American journalists and newspapers. The awards, the most prestigious injournalism, have been given out bythe ColumbiaUniversity’s School of Journalism since1917.
The primary rival of Pulitzer was WilliamRandolph Hearst, one ofthe richest men in the country, who ran theNew York Journal.Eventually, he ownedabout 25 papers acrossthe country, forming thefirst newspaper chain. Based in San Francisco, he also built Hearst Castle along the California coast.
The circulation warbetween the twopapers escalatedwhen both startedwriting sensational, exaggerated storiesabout crime andpolitics to attractreaders. It becameknown as “yellow journalism” (after a popular cartoon) and hit its peak when Hearst tried to gain popular support for U.S. involvement in a war with Cuba.
While the primary focus of journalism in the late 19th Century was New York City, newspapers were flourishing everywhere. One of the first major newspapers in California was established in San Jose in 1851(still publishingas the Mercury-News today). In 1881, the LosAngeles DailyTimes wasfounded.
Gen. Harrison Gray Otis took over the L.A. paper a year later and soon renamed it the Los Angeles Times. It soon became the dominant paper of Southern California, expanding under his son-in-law Harry Chandler.
Two late 19thCentury inventionschanged the waynewsrooms operated:the telephone andthe typewriter becamethe most importanttools of the modernjournalist.
Newspapers faced their first major challenges in the 1920s with the widespread popularity of radio and movie newsreels.
During the 1930sand ‘40s,newspapers and reporters wereoften the subjectof movies. “Citizen Kane,” considered by most film historians as the greatest American movie, was about a egotistical newspaper publisher. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWamUmlKY0A&feature=related
Radio and newspapers shared the spotlight during the coverage of World War II, but soon after the war television began pushing aside the “old media.”
One of the earlystars of televisionnews was Edward R.Murrow, a radioreporter duringWWII, who turnedCBS into the TV’s most respected news departments. Following in his footsteps at CBS was longtime news anchor Walter Cronkite and the network’s “60 Minutes.”
By 1963, thenumber of U.S.cities that hadtwo or more dailynewspapers was55 compared to almost 700 in 1909. In the 1960s, large companies created newspaper chains by buying up dozens of papers across the country.
Otis Chandler took overas publisher of the LosAngeles Times in 1960and quickly turned amediocre paper into oneof the top newspapers in the country. Chandler hired the best journalists and eliminated the paper’s rightwing bias. The Chandler family sold the paper to the Tribune Company in 2000.
Newspaper journalism received a boost in popularity and prestige in the wake of the Washington Post’s investigationof the Watergate burglary. Stories by Bob Woodwardand CarlBernstein ledto theresignation of President Nixon.Journalism schools saw ahuge increasein enrollment.
Circulation of U.S.newspapers declinesfrom 62.3 million in1990 to 55.8 in 2000.While newspapersemphasized features and analysis stories in the 1980s and ‘90s to attract new and younger readers, the expansion of cable TV took ad revenue and readers away.
Newspapersrealized toolate that allowingInternet sitesto reuse itsstories woulddamage bothrevenues andreadership. With a new generation expecting to get news for free and instantaneously on the Internet, newspapers began a slow decline at the turn of the century.
While newspapers have eliminated over 100,000 jobs since 2007, opportunities for writers and reporters continue to grow as the desire forinformation andcommentary has neverbeen stronger. But itbecomes less and lessclear as to who is ajournalist and who is just someone with aweb site.
Ushistory.com • Answers.com • Pulitzer.com • Poynter.com • Pbs.org • Latimes.com • Journalism.org • Encyclopedia.com • Google.com • History.journalism.ku.edu • Ablongman.com Sources used for this power point presentation.
