HISTO

RY OF

THE P

RINT

MEDIA

T AR

A W

I LK

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CA

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PRINTING TECHNOLOGY

• Chinese made carved wooden blocks shortly after AD 175, when they first developed paper

• Koreans crudely casted individual letters in metal more than a century before Gutenberg press

• Block printing was extremely difficult and inefficient

• Characters did not reproduce very clearly because wood did not make razor sharp edges

• Process was laborious, only produced limited copies

INVENTION OF PRINTING PRESS

• Invented by Johannes Gutenberg

• Gutenberg Press

• 1455 - 200 copies of his famous Bible

• Cast individual letters in molten metal

• Could be set up in lines, one letter at a time

• Took 20 years to develop the right process

EDWIN EMERY - NEWSPAPER

• Published at least weekly

• Produced by mechanical printing process

• Available (for a price) to people of all walks of life

• Prints news of general interest rather than specialized topics

• Is readable by people of ordinary literacy

• Is timely

• Is stable over time

COLONIAL PRESS

• Small, slow

• Aimed at affluent, educated readers

• Limited coverage

• Often published in support of political party

• Commercial papers for merchants and traders

FIRST NEWSPAPERS – OXFORD GAZETTE

• Later called ‘London Gazette’

• Published in 1665

• Under authority of King Charles II

• Published twice weekly

• Controlled and screened by the crown

FIRST NEWSPAPERS – DAILY COURANT

• 1st daily newspaper

• London, 1702

• Sophisticated literacy style

• Appealed to the affluent, educated elite

PRESS IN AMERICAN COLONIES

• Boston News-Letter, 1st American newspaper

• Published by John Campbell, 1704

• Was the postmaster of Boston

• Mailed the paper without postal charges

• Dull treaties on European politics, shipping reports, advertising

• Lack of interest – no financial success

PRESS AS WATCHDOG OF PUBLIC INTEREST• New England Courant

• Published by James Franklin, 1721

• Departure from colonial tradition – not published by authority

• Had no connection to post office

• Still aimed at elite

NEWSPAPERS FOR THE ‘COMMON’ PEOPLE• New York Sun – ‘It Shines for All’

• Benjamin Day, 1833

• Human interest stories about ‘everyday’ people

• Hired the first ‘salaried’ reporter, who went to local court each morning to report

• Sold on the streets by newsboys for a penny

• Made it profit through advertising space

YELLOW JOURNALISM

• New York Sunday World

• Joseph Pulitzer, 1890s

• Circulation of over 300,00

• Combined good reporting with sensational photos, comic strips, disasters to appeal to reader interest

• Pioneered us of colour in comics

ERA OF YELLOW JOURNALISM

• Scare headlines in huge print, often of minor news

• Lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings

• Use of faked interviews, misleading headlines

• Emphasis on full-colour supplements, usually with comic strips

• Dramatic sympathy with the "underdog" against the system.

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

1. Group 1 - Newspaper

2. Group 2 - Radio

3. Group 3 – TV

4. Group 4 – New Media