Transcript The History of American Journalism

The History of
American
Journalism
America’s 1st Newspapers
 Often only one sheet long
 Not what we consider now consider
news
 Letters, essays, & materials that were
borrowed from whatever source they could
find or heard on the street.
America’s 1st Newspaper
 Publick Occourrences
 Published in 1690 by Benjamin
Harris
 After only one issue, the British
Colonial authorities stopped the
paper because they didn’t like
what Harris printed (now called
censorship)
America’s 1st Newspapers
 14 years later the colonies
had their 1st continuously
published newspaper: the
Boston News-Letter
 Started by John Campbell in
1704. It was published “by
authority”- government
approved
Interesting Fact
 The Boston News Letter
was the only newspaper in
the colonies and the most
sensational stories
published about
Blackbeard, the pirate,
killed in hand-to-hand
combat on the deck of a
sloop that engaged his ship
in battle!
John Peter Zenger
 Publisher of the New York
Weekly Journal and accused
and tried for libel against the
colonial British government
in 1735.
 Zenger was found innocent
and this paved the way for
free press in America.
Penny Press
 In the mid 19th century most
newspapers were sold for 10 cents.
 Benjamin Day founded the New York
Sun & sold it for a penny. Others soon
imitated this new type of paper, which
was filled with news, achieved a mass
audience, & carried advertising.
Penny Press
 Most well known Penny
Press…
 the New York Tribune
 Founded in 1841 by Horace
Greeley
 Weekly edition had 200,000
subscribers (more than any other
publication of that time)
Penny Press
 Cities like Pittsburgh, Chicago, New Orleans,
Atlanta, St. Louis, and Louisville, the penny
press grew & prospered.
 Headlines grew larger & designs got better as
newspapers competed for street sales
 It wasn’t unusual for large cities to have 8 or 9
papers in circulation, today most cities have only
one
New Technology
 The Civil War brought
photography and it
became a popular
addition to newspapers.
Telegraph- a system for transmitting
messages from a distance along a wire
which let reporters send news back to their
newspaper as it was happening.
Yellow Journalism
 Started by Joseph Pulitzer, New York World
and William Randolph Hearst, San Francisco
Examiner and later the New York Morning
Journal, to compete with each other.
Yellow Journalism
 yellow journalism- a
sensational brand of
journalism given to hoaxes,
altered photographs,
screaming headlines, frauds,
and endless promotions of
the newspaper themselves.
The term derives from the
name of the Yellow Kid, a
cartoon character popular in
the late 19th century.
Freedom of the Press
 Slander- a damaging false statement
against another person or institution
spoken or broadcast
*extemporaneously
spoken or done without preparation:
an extemporaneous speech.
Freedom of the Press
 Libel- written defamation; damaging
false statements against another person
or institution that appear in writing or are
spoken (broadcast) from a written script.
Muckraking
 The end of yellow journalism brought on
a new age of journalism
 Papers began to support social issues
(child labor laws, charities, etc.)
 Crusading journalist were labeled as
Muckrakers- which the reformers
thought of this term as a term of praise
Muckraking
 Muckraker- a term still used today to
refer to journalists who investigates and
develops significant social
consciousness and through their writing
crusade for social justice or expose
wrongdoing
Muckraking
Nellie Bly --
is considered the original
muckraker with her 1887 under-cover expose
on patient abuse at a mental hospital, first
published as a series of articles in The World
newspaper and then as a book.
Are You Listening?
 In 1906 Dr. Lee De Forest made
improvements in the vacuum tube that
made radio possible
 De Forest made the 1st newscast in
1916
Are You Listening?
 National Broadcasting Company (NBC),
Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS),
& American Broadcasting Company
(ABC) were formed & began
broadcasting on the airwaves.
 Soon the airwaves became too crowded &
the stations began to overlap each others
broadcast.
Are You Listening?
 The Federal Radio Commission was
formed to help regulate the airwaves.
This organization later became the FCC
(Federal Communications Commission) which now has
control over radio & television
Do You See?
 In the 1930’s President Franklin
Roosevelt spoke to the american public
With his “fireside chats”
 1940- 1st television newscast
 By the mid-60’s, 60,000,000 TV sets
were in use

Information taken from Journalism Today! by Donald L. Ferguson & Jim Patten