Transcript Heading into the home stretch

Newspapers: The Rise
and Decline of Modern
Journalism
Chapter 3
“U.S. newspapers have lost readers as well as
their near monopoly on classified advertising,
much of which has shifted to popular Web sites
like craigslist.com. By early 2010, newspapers’
advertising revenues seemed to be in freefall,
along with their stock price. Industry observers
began asking, ‘Can this mass medium survive
much longer?’ ”
Newspapers Today
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Newspapers have historically acted as
chroniclers of daily life.
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Inform and entertain
In the digital age, the industry is losing
papers and readers.
Losses raise big concerns for future of
newspapers.
The Early History of American
Newspapers
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Colonial papers
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Benjamin Harris: Publick Occurrences (1690)
Benjamin Franklin: Pennsylvania Gazette
(1729)
John Peter Zenger and the Popular Party: the
New-York Weekly Journal (1733)
Partisan Press
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Critiqued government
Disseminated views of different political parties
that sponsored newspapers
Offered updates on markets
Reported ship cargoes from Europe
Directed at wealthy, educated readers
Evolved into modern:
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Editorial pages
Business sections
Penny Press
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1833—Benjamin Day’s New York Sun
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Human-interest stories
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Local events, scandals, police reports, serialized
stories
Blazed the trail for celebrity news
Fabricated stories
Ordinary individuals facing extraordinary
challenges
Success spawned wave of penny papers.
Changing Business Models
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1835—James Gordon Bennett’s New
York Morning Herald
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Bennett first U.S. press baron, completely
controlled paper’s content
World’s largest daily paper at the time
Targeted middle- and working-class readers
Penny papers increased reliance on ad
revenue.
News Wire Services
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Commercial and cooperative organizations
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Relayed news stories around world by telegraph
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Began with Associated Press (AP) in 1848
Later used radio waves, digital transmissions
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Increased speed of news distribution
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Set the stage for modern U.S. journalism
Provided more people greater access to
information
Yellow Journalism
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Pulitzer and Hearst
Overly dramatic
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Exposed Corruption
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Crimes, Celebrities, Scandals, Disaster, Intrigue
In business and government
Developed elements of modern journalism
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Investigative reporting
Advice columns
Feature stories
Journalism awards
Competing Models of Print
Journalism in 1800s
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Story-driven model
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Dramatized important events
Characterized penny papers, yellow press
“The facts” model
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Favored impartial approach
Characterized six-cent papers
Objectivity in Modern
Journalism
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Ochs and The New York Times, 1896
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Distanced itself from yellow journalism
Focused on documentation of major
events
Attracted more affluent readership
through marketing
Lowered price to a penny, attracting
middle-class readers
Objectivity in Modern
Journalism (cont.)
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Inverted-pyramid style
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Developed by Civil War correspondents
Answered who, what, where, when, why, how
first (top)
Placed less significant details later (bottom)
Limits of objectivity
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Prevents readers from obtaining a fuller
picture of events
Interpretive Journalism
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Explains key issues or events
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Places news in broader historical or social
context
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Developed partly in response to poor
reporting of causes of World War I
Provides more analysis than objective
model
Lippmann and interpretive
journalism
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Press should remain objective but also
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1) Supply facts for the current record
2) Give analysis
3) Suggest plans on the basis of both
Timeline
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Began in 1920s
Debate over role of newspapers and
radio,1930s
Op-ed pages become popular in 1950s
Literary (New) Journalism
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Fictional storytelling techniques applied to
nonfictional material
Timeline
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Originated in 1930s–40s
Gained popularity in 1960s (Rolling Stone)
Journalists working in this tradition
include:
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Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, Hunter
Thompson, Jon Krakauer, Adrian Nicole
LeBlanc
Technology Age Changes
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USA Today (1982)
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First newspaper to use color
Mimics broadcast by using brief news
items
Writers use present tense for
immediacy
Online Technology Changes
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Online journalism reshapes news
process
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Readers find news through sites like
Google
Real time updates
Stories stay in public eye longer
Trivial stories get more emphasis
Categorizing News And U.S.
Newspapers
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Smaller local papers
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Focus on consensus
Promote social, economic harmony in community
Publish weekly
Use consensus-oriented journalism
Regional and national papers
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Use conflict-oriented journalism
Front-page news defined as events, issues, or
experiences deviating from social norms
Ethnic and Minority
Newspapers
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African American
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Spanish language
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Freedom’s Journal (1827–1829), Amsterdam News,
Chicago Defender
New York’s El Diario–La Prensa merged with Los
Angeles’ La Opinión to create ImpreMedia.
Asian American
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Sing Tao Daily serves Chinese immigrants
nationwide.
Ethnic and Minority
Newspapers (cont.)
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Native American
 Cherokee Phoenix (1828), Native American
Times
Arab American
 Arab American News, Aramica
The Underground Press
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Inspired by
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socialists, intellectuals from 1930s, 1940s
New wave of critics and artists in the 1960s
Mid to late 1960s saw explosion in alternative
newspapers
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Critiqued government and social institutions
Challenged mainstream depictions of news
Village Voice: most enduring alternative paper
Economics: Money In
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Majority of revenues derived from advertising
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Large dailies devote one-half to two-thirds of
pages to ads.
Ads range from expensive full-page spreads
to classifieds.
Newshole refers to space left for front-page
news, regional stories, features.
Economics: Money Out
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Salaries and wages for staff
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Economic downturn and industry consolidation
have caused layoffs
Staff expected to do more jobs
Independent bureaus are closing
Wire services
Feature syndicates
Challenges Facing
Newspapers
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Declining readership
Decreasing number of cities with
competing daily newspapers
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Joint operating agreements (JOA)
Newspaper chains
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Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
multinational
Congress exploring nonprofit models to
keep papers alive
Challenges Facing
Newspapers (cont.)
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Going digital
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Rising blogs
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By 2010, more newspapers moving bulk of
operation online, while dramatically
decreasing news staff
Some print papers folding
Now considered major source of news that
rivals print papers
Competing citizen journalists
Newspapers in a Democratic
Society
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The survival of a free press is not certain
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As more newspapers fold or consolidate, what
will fill this void?
Where will citizens outside of the mainstream
obtain information vital to them?
How will diverse opinions and ideas be heard?
“…Reporting is absolutely an essential thing for
democratic self-government. Who’s going to do
it? Who’s going to pay for the news? If
newspapers fall by the wayside, what will we
know?”*
*John Carroll, “News War, Part 3,” Frontline, PBS, February 27, 2007, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ newswar/etc/script3.html.