Newspapers: The Rise and Decline of Modern Journalism

Chapter 8

The Rise and Decline of Modern Journalism

• Despite their current predicament, newspapers and their online offspring play many roles in contemporary culture

• Newspapers help readers make choices about everything from what kind of food to eat to what kinds of leaders to elect

• Although newspapers have played a central role in daily life, in today’s digital age the industry is losing both papers and readers

• Did you read certain sections of the paper as a kid? What do you remember from your childhood about your parents’ reading habits? What are your reading habits today? How often do you actually hold a newspaper?

The Evolution of American Newspapers

The Evolution of American Newspapers

• The earliest news was passed along orally from family to family, or tribe to tribe, by community leaders and oral historians

• The earliest written news was developed by Julius Caesar, and was posted in public spaces on buildings in Rome in 59 B.C.E.

• The development of the printing press greatly accelerated a society’s ability to send and receive information

• News has satisfied the need to know things that we don’t experience

Colonial Newspapers and the Partisan Press

• In North America, the first newspaper—Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick—was published in 1690. The colonial government objected to the content (negative tone towards British rule, King of France had an affair with his son’s wife) and the newspaper only lasted one issue

• The first regularly published newspaper started in 1704—the Boston News-Letter

Colonial Newspapers and the Popular Press

• Peter Zenger, 1735, wins a case which decided that newspapers had the right to criticize government leaders as long as the reports were true

• The Zenger case would later provide the foundation for…• Partisan Press: Generally pushed the plan of the particular

political group that subsidized the paper• The commercial press, by contrast, served business

leaders who were interested in economic issues

The Penny Press Era: Newspapers Become Mass Media

• By the late 1820s, the average newspaper reader was affluent because most working-class people could not afford the subscriptions

• The Industrial Revolution made cheap machine-made paper possible

• The rise of the middle class spurred literacy• Mechanical presses were replaced by steam-powered

presses• Penny papers relied not only on subscriptions, but on daily

street sales of individual copies

Benjamin Day and the New York Sun

• 1833- Printer Benjamin Day founded the New York Sun with no subscriptions and the price set at one penny

• The sun highlighted local events, scandals, police reports, and serialized stories. They also fabricated stories (moon hoax), but had a circulation of 8,000 (double the nearest competitor)

• This initiated a wave a papers that highlighted human-interest stories

Bennett and the New York Morning Herald

• In 1835 James Gordon Bennett (considered the first U.S. press baron) freed his newspaper from political influence

• New York Morning Herald featured stories about scandals, political essays, business stories, a letters section, fashion notes, religious news, society gossip, sports stories, and eventually stories about the Civil War

• Bennett’s paper also sponsored balloon races, financed safaris, and overplayed crime stories

• By 1860 it reached 80,000 readers, making it the world’s largest daily paper at the time

Changing Economics and the Founding of the Associated Press

• Penny papers were the first to assign reporters to cover crime• The penny press became more neutral towards advertisers and

printed virtually any ad—miracle cures, abortionists, and the slave trade (these were seen as taboo by the political press)

• In 1848, six New York papers formed a cooperative arrangement and founded the Associated Press (AP), the first major wire service

• The marketing of news as a product and the use of modern technology to dramatically cut costs gradually elevated newspapers to the status of mass medium

The Age of Yellow Journalism: Sensationalism and Investigation

• In the late 1800s, yellow journalism emphasized profitable papers that carried exciting human-interest stories, crime news, and large headlines

• These were sensationalistic and the forerunners of modern tabloids

• Yellow journalism featured two major developments:1. The emphasis was on overly dramatic, sensational stories2. There were in-depth detective stories—investigative

journalism

Pulitzer and the New York World• Joseph Pulitzer started as the part owner of two newspapers in St. Louis• In 1883, he bought the New York World• He ran sensational stories, but also maps and illustrations, women’s pages,

and advice columns• The New York World emphasized the contradictory nature of yellow

journalism: it crusaded for better housing and conditions for women, equitable labor laws, and against monopoly practices. At the same time, it manufactured news events and staged stunts

• Pulitzer’s legacy includes $2 million to start the graduate school of journalism at Columbia, and the endowment for the Pulitzer Prizes

Hearst and the New York Journal

• William Randolph Hearst bough the New York Journal in 1895 and used many of the same tactics as other yellow journalists

• Hearst is remembered as an unscrupulous publisher who once hired gangsters to distribute his newspapers

• He was also considered a champion of the underdog• Hearst was the model for the main character in Citizen

Kane

Competing Models of Modern Print Journalism

Competing Models of Modern Print Journalism

• Two distinct types of journalism emerged:1. The story-driven model, dramatizing important events and used by the

penny press and yellow press2. The just-the-facts model, an approach that appeared to package

information more impartially and that the six-cent papers favored

In journalism, is there an ideal, attainable, objective model, or does that quest for objectivity actually conflict with journalists’ traditional role of raising important issues about potential abuses of power in a democratic society?

“Objectivity” in Modern Journalism

• As the consumer marketplace expanded during the Industrial Revolution, facts and news became marketable products

• The more a newspaper appeared to not take sides on its front pages, the more its readership grew

• Wire services provided information across a variety of locations

• To satisfy all clients, newspapers tried to appear more impartial

Ochs and the New York Times

• The idea of an impartial news model was championed by Adolph Ochs, who bough the New York Times in 1896

• To distance his paper from the yellow press, the editors downplayed sensational stories, instead documenting major events or issues

• At first it only attracted wealthy readers, but Ochs dropped the price to a penny, attracting a wider audience

“Just the Facts, Please”

• Objective journalism: distinguishes factual reports from opinion columns, attempt to maintain a neutral attitude, and feature competing points of view

• Inverted-pyramid style: More important facts at the top, less important at the bottom of the story

• Although the inverted pyramid has solved deadline problems and made writing easier for journalists and editors (cut from the bottom), it has also discouraged many readers from continuing beyond the key details in the opening paragraphs

The Promise of Interpretive Journalism

Interpretive journalism: Aims to explain key issues or events and place them in a broader historical or social contextWalter Lippman ranked three press responsibilities:1. To make a current record2. To make a running analysis of it3. On the basis of both, to suggest plans

Broadcast News Embraces Interpretive Journalism

• The rise of broadcast radio allowed a new venue for interpreting the facts—newspapers wanted to print the facts while allowing radio to interpret them

• It wasn’t until the 1950s, when tensions about the Cold War, nuclear power, communists and the Korean War forced newspapers to provide interpretation

Literary Forms of Journalism

• By the late 1960s, many people were criticizing America’s major social institutions

• Faced with so much change and turmoil, many individuals began to lose faith in the ability of institutions to ensure social order

• As a result, key institutions—including journalism—lost some of their credibility

Journalism as an Art Form

• Literary journalism: Adapted fictional techniques, such as descriptive details, settings, character dialogue

• A leading practitioner of new journalism argued for mixing the content of reporting with the form of fiction to create a better way of reporting stories

Contemporary Journalism in the TV and Internet Age

• In the early 1980s, a postmodern brand of journalism arose from two important developments

1. In 1980, the Columbus Dispatch became the first paper to go online

2. In 1982, USA Today radically changed the look of most major U.S. papers

USA Today Colors the Print Landscape

• USA Today made its mark by incorporating features that recognized TV’s role in news (visual elements)

• It used brief news items as a reaction to shorter attention spans

• USA Today writes news in the present tense (like broadcast)

Online Journalism Redefines News

• Rather than subscribing to a newspaper, many consumers now read news online

• News comes from many sources, including newspaper websites, cable news channels, newsmagazines, bloggers, and online-only news outlets

• In the digital age, newsrooms are integrating their digital and print operations and asking their journalists to tweet breaking news that links back to newspapers’ websites

The Business and Ownership of Newspapers

The Business and Ownership of Newspapers

• Several types of newspapers:1. National newspapers: Serve a broad readership across the country2. Metropolitan dailies: Serve a specific geographic region3. Weekly newspapers: Serve smaller communities

• No matter the size of the paper, each must determine its approach, target readers, and deal with ownership issues in a time of technological transition and declining revenue

Consensus vs Conflict: Newspapers Play Different Roles

• Consensus-oriented journalism: Focus on carrying articles on local schools, social events, town government, property crimes, and zoning issues. Generally smaller, local papers. At their best, they foster a sense of community. At their worst, they overlook or downplay problems

• Conflict-oriented journalism: Front page news is often defined primarily as events, issues, or experiences that deviate from social norms. This type of journalism often pits one point of view against another

Newspapers Target Specific Readers

• Newspapers aimed at ethnic groups have played a major role in initiating immigrants into American society

• Newspapers aimed at the Swedish, Norwegian, German, Yiddish, Russian, and Polish populations accompanied the influx of European immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries

• Today, newspapers aimed at minorities and immigrants, as well as disabled veterans, retired workers, gay and lesbian communities serve their populations

African American Newspapers

• Between 1827 and the end of the Civil War in 1865, forty newspapers directed at black readers and opposed to slavery struggled for survival

• Since 1827, 5,500 newspapers have been edited or started by African Americans

• These papers have taken a stand against race baiting, lynching, and the KKK

• They also promoted racial pride long before the Civil Rights movement

Spanish-Language Newspapers

• Bilingual and Spanish-language newspapers have served a variety of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Hispanic readerships since 1808

• By 2011, about 800 Spanish-language papers operated in the U.S.

Asian American Newspapers

• In the 1980s, hundreds of small papers emerged to serve immigrants from Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia, and China

• These papers help readers both adjust to foreign surroundings and retain ties to their traditional heritage

• They also cover major stories downplayed by the mainstream press

Native American Newspapers

• The Native American Press Association has documented more than 350 Native American papers, most of them printed in English, but a few in tribal languages

• Currently, two national papers are the Native American Times and Indian Country Today

• Overall, these papers provide a forum for debates on tribal conflicts and concerns

The Underground Press

• These papers questioned mainstream political policies and conventional values, often voicing radical opinions

• During the 1960s, underground papers played a unique role in documenting the social tensions by including the voices of students, women, African Americans, Native Americans, gay men and lesbians, and others whose opinions were often excluded from the mainstream press

Newspaper Operations

• Today, a weekly paper might employ only two or three people, while major metro dailies might have a staff of more than 1,000

• Most major daily papers would like to devote one-half to two-thirds of their pages to advertisements

• The newshole—the space not taken up by ads—accounts for the rest of the newspaper, including the front-page news

News and Editorial Responsibilities

• Reporters work for editors• Reporters generally write for print and online in modern

papers. They are also responsible for gathering images and video

• Major layoffs of print reporters have been taking place for the last 15 years

• Far fewer versions of stories are being produced, and readers must often rely on a single version of a news report

Wire Services and Feature Syndication

• Wire services have hundreds of staffers throughout major U.S. cities and world capitals, who submit stories and photos each day for distribution to newspapers across the country (for a price)

• Feature syndicates contract with newspapers to provide them with political writers, editorial cartoonists, comic-strip artists, and self-help columnists

Newspaper Ownership: Chains Losing Their Grip

• Newspaper chain: A company that owns several papers throughout the country

• Many newspaper chains have responded to the drop in circulation by reducing their newsroom staff and selling off individual papers

• As chains lose their grip, there are concerns about who will own papers in the future and the effect the papers’ owners will have on content and press freedoms

Challenges Facing Newspapers Today

Readership Declines in the U.S.

• The decline in newspaper readership began with the rise of radio

• Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, U.S. newspaper circulation dropped again, this time by more than 25 percent

• In countries where access to the internet is lacking, newspaper readership is actually increasing

• Globally, 93 percent of all newspaper revenues continue to come from print

Going Local: How Small and Campus Papers Retain Readers

• Despite the doomsday predictions about print journalism, many small papers continue to be a dominant source of news for local information

• Small towns and cities don’t have TV stations, radio stations, etc.

• Their readers are loyal, and can’t get their news from other sources

• Many college newspaper editors report that the most popular feature in their papers is the police report…

Blogs Challenge Newspapers’ Authority Online

• By 2005, the wary relationship between journalism and blogging began to change

• Established journalists left major organizations to become bloggers

• What distinguishes the best online news from so many opinion blogs still out there is the reliance on old-fashioned journalism—calling on reporters to interview people as sources, to look at documents, and to find evidence to support the story, whether it is print or online

Convergence: Newspapers Struggle in the Move to Digital

• Because of their local monopoly status, many newspapers were slower than other media to confront the challenges of the internet

• Newspapers have adapted by offering online versions of their papers• Newspapers are taking advantage of the flexibility the internet offers.

Space is not an issue, so they can print long stories and readers’ letters• Online editions also offer immediate updates to breaking news• Online ads only account for about 17 percent of a paper’s advertising

revenue• Paywall: Charging a fee to access online news content

New Models for Journalism• News organizations “substantially devoted to reporting on public

affairs” should be allowed to operate as nonprofit entities• Public radio and TV should reorient their focus to local news reporting• Universities should become news sources, operating their own news

services or supporting public services• A national fund for local news should be created• News services, nonprofits, and government agencies should use the

internet to “increase the accessibility and usefulness of public information”

Alternative Voices

• Citizen journalism: People who use the internet and blogs to disseminate news and information

• Most journalists and many citizens want to see more professional models of journalism develop in the digital age so that people can decrease their reliance on unedited video footage and untrained amateurs as key sources

Newspapers and Democracy

• Of all mass media, newspapers have played the leading role in sustaining democracy and championing freedom

• Between 1992 and 2014, 1062 reporters from around the world were killed while doing their job

• “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?”