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Chapter 8

Chapter 8. NEWSPAPERS and the Rise of Modern Journalism. Some guiding questions. How did newspapers emerge as a mass medium? How have the standards of journalism changed in the modern era? How do issues of ownership, economics and technology bear upon journalism?

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Chapter 8

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  1. Chapter 8 NEWSPAPERS and the Rise of Modern Journalism

  2. Some guiding questions • How did newspapers emerge as a mass medium? • How have the standards of journalism changed in the modern era? • How do issues of ownership, economics and technology bear upon journalism? • What are central concerns about journalism and democracy?

  3. What is NEWS? • News satisfies our need to know things we cannot experience personally • News documents daily life and bears witness to ordinary and extraordinary events • Does it just report FACTS, or does it help us to interpret them? • How does the news differ from print to broadcast to web based?

  4. Early American newspapers • Colonial newspapers in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, South Carolina generally fell into two categories: • PARTISAN PRESS: political bias, argued for one perspective • COMMERCIAL PRESS: served interests of business and economic leaders • By 1765, about 30 newspapers, with the first daily paper in 1784

  5. Readership was primarily limited to elite and educated men: WHY? • Low literacy rate among working and middle classes • Newspaper production and distribution was expensive • Newspaper subscription rates were high • Press did not address middle and upper class women’s interests or those of the working class

  6. ERA OF THE PENNY PRESS (1820s) • Industrial Revolution: new technologies made MASS PUBLISHING cheaper and faster • New strategies by some publishers to attract working-class readers

  7. PENNY PRESS STRATEGIES • Lowered cost to one penny per issue • Focus on local events, scandals and crime • By 1848, gained access to shared national coverage • Ran serialized stories • Human interest stories • Celebrity news • Fashion notes • Jokes

  8. ERA of YELLOW JOURNALISM (1890s) • age of SENSATIONALISM (to attract readers/consumers) • age of INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING (to crusade for common people)

  9. Two infamous publishers • JOSEPH PULITZER: Eastern European immigrant, built empire from St. Louis Post-Dispatch to New York World • appealed to working classes • promoted consumerism • crusaded against corruption

  10. Two infamous publishers • WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST: son of U.S. senator, built empire from San Francisco Examiner to New York Journal: • appealed to immigrant and working class • sensational journalism (like tabloids today) • champion of the underdog • model for Citizen Kane (1941 film)

  11. MODERN JOURNALISM IN AMERICA: COMPETING MODELS • STORY model: dramatized events, used individual characters and narrative structure • INFORMATION model: emphasized a purely factual, straightforward approach • Do these two models exist today?

  12. OBJECTIVE JOURNALISM: Inverted Pyramid Style of Reporting • What? Efficient model for news reporting • How? Concentrated main details about news at top of story (WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, and HOW ) • Why? Initially, to ensure that primary elements got through telegraph transmissions, but also to aid editors

  13. INTERPRETIVE JOURNALISM • A style of reporting that tries to put issues and events in broader social and historical context • Explanatory, interpretiveanalysisof news • Why? • Objectivity has limits in an increasingly complex world and people want analysis • Radio (and later television and the web) could provide the instant coverage that newspapers could not, but they don’t generally have the space to do stories in depth

  14. Attack on objectivity as dominant model (1960s)-->new journalistic forms • advocacy journalism • precision journalism • new journalism (aka literary journalism)

  15. ETHNIC, MINORITY, and OPPOSITIONALNEWSPAPERS • Independent newspapers for immigrant, racial and ethnic groups • Hispanic press • Native American press • African-American press • The underground press

  16. OWNERSHIP, ECONOMICS and TECHNOLOGY What issues face the world of newspaper publishing today?

  17. ISSUES TODAY • CIRCULATION CRISIS: decline in readership in spite of population growth • LOSS OF COMPETING NEWSPAPERS in major cities (mergers, JOAs) • NEWSPAPER CHAINS • NEW TECHNOLOGIES (on-line journalism)

  18. PRINT vs. ELECTRONIC NEWS • What are the advantages and disadvantages of each mode?

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