The History of Journalism

It Didn’t Happen Overnight

• Newspapers have not always been the sophisticated, full-color extravaganzas we know today.

• American journalism had its humble beginnings in the __________ __________.

Publick Occurrences

_________ ___________ Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick was shut down after its one and only issue on Sept. 26, _______.

Publick Occurrences (cont.)

This newspaper was printed on three sheets of stationery-size paper and the fourth page was left blank so that readers could ___ _____ ____ _____ before passing it on to someone else.

Publick Occurrences (cont.)

Unfortunately, the essays which this paper contained did not please the authorities, and Harris had not bought the required license, so the paper was shut down after just ___ ________.

Publick Occurrences (cont.)

From this point forward, in order for a newspaper to be printed, it had to carry permission -- in the form of the words:

___ ______________

The Boston Newsletter

The first continuously published American newspaper did not come along for 14 more years. The Boston News-Letter premiered on April 24, ______.

Boston Newsletter (cont.)

The publisher was _____ ____________. The paper originally appeared on a single page, printed on both sides and issued __________.

Boston Newsletter (cont.) In the early years of

its publication the News-Letter was filled mostly with news from _________ journals detailing the intrigues of English politics, and a variety of events concerning the European wars.

Boston Newsletter (cont.) The rest of the

newspaper was filled with items listing ship arrivals, deaths, sermons, political appointments, fires, accidents and the like.

Problems Arise Perhaps the most

famous name in early American journalism is that of ______ _________________, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal.

Zenger (cont.)

Zenger was accused and tried for _______ against the colonial British government in _______. In this picture, Zenger is arrested and his printing press is burned by Colonial authorities.

Zenger (cont.)

An important fact: Zenger did not

_____ any of the articles found in his paper -- he was the _____________, and thus the person responsible for its contents.

Zenger (cont.)

_______________________ took Zenger’s case -- he was considered to be the best lawyer in the colonies.

Zenger (cont.) Hamilton won the Zenger case

the only way that it could have been won, by convincing the jury to _______ ____ ____ __ ___ ______, not just the facts. 

Zenger (cont.) Legally, there is no question that Zenger

committed seditious libel as it was defined in the law of the time but the law itself was ___________. Hamilton gave the jury the push it needed to decide Zenger's case in a way consistent with their own _____________.

Zenger (cont.) Zenger was found innocent -- this one

verdict paved the way for a _______ _____ _____________ press in America. For the first time it was considered proper for the press to __________ and _____________ the government.

Evolution of the Press

Things continued for many years without major improvements -- until ____________

_______ created The New York Sun in _______.

This began the ________ _________.

The Penny Press (cont.)

• Newspapers of the day cost about __ _______ each . . . too expensive for the masses.

• Day took advantage of the fact that he could print thousands of papers inexpensively and sold the papers for a penny each.  

The Penny Press (cont.)

He also changed the content of newspapers to make it more _____________ and more popular to the lower class.

He hired boys to hawk the newspapers on street corners.

The Penny Press (cont.)

• Because of the success of Day’s idea, many other publishers were quick to follow.

• These publishers became very rich, and were often referred to as the ______ ___ ______ _________.

The Penny Press (cont.)

It was the Penny Press that also began using _____________ as a way to bring readers information, but advertising also helped by paying for the printing and distribution of newspapers.

The Civil War

An invention that helped speed news along was the ___________. Reporters were able to send encoded news back to their papers as it was happening.

The telegraph (cont.) Because the

telegraph wires kept going down on a regular basis, sometimes the story that a reporter was trying to send got cut off before it was finished.

The telegraph (cont.) Because of this,

reporters developed the “___________ ____________” form of writing, putting the most important facts at the _____________ of the story.

The telegraph (cont.)

This way, the most important part of the story would most likely reach the newspaper, and if anything got cut off, it would be the lesser important details of what happened.

Photography

Photography (cont.)

Photography became a popular addition to newspapers.

__________ ________ set up a camera on the battlefields and photographed the soldiers at war.

Serious Competition

As newspapers began to compete more and more with one another to increase circulation and obtain more advertising revenue, a different type of journalism was developed.

Yellow Journalism _________ _________

(The New York World), and ________ ___________ ________ (The San Francisco Examiner), began what became known as ___________ ______________.

Yellow Journalism (cont.)

Newspapers began to use ____________ and ____________ news coverage, as well as the use of _________ and the inclusion of more features such as ________ _______.

Joseph Pulitzer

William Randolph Hearst

Yellow Journalism (cont.)

After Pulitzer began publishing color comic sections that included a strip entitled ”_____ ________ _____" (right) in early ______, this type of paper was labeled "yellow journalism."

Yellow Journalism (cont.) Drawn by ____

__________, the popular (if now-unfunny) strip became a prize in the struggle between Pulitzer and Hearst in the New York newspaper wars.

Involvement of Women

One of the most popular reporters of the Yellow Journalism era was a woman named _________ _________ who wrote under the name “_______ ____.”

Nellie Bly (cont.)

She wrote with _______ and ____________. She wrote to expose the many wrongs that developed in nineteenth century cities after the ___________ _____. Most of her reporting was on women.

Nellie Bly (cont.)

She directed her articles to ______ _______ _______ to open their eyes and hearts to their impoverished, hungry, hopeless sisters.

Nellie Bly (cont.)

She felt very strongly that women and their issues were not represented in newspapers or anywhere else.

Nellie Bly (cont.)

In _____ she moved to Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, for which she exposed the conditions in which the _______ lived by pretending to be mad and getting herself committed to the asylum on Blackwell's Island.

Nellie Bly (cont.)

She also investigated sweat-shops tenements, the world of petty crime and Corps de Ballet by the same methods.

Nellie Bly (cont.)

The high point in her life, however, was the _______ ___ _______ _____, which she made in 72 days, 6 hours,11 minutes and 14 seconds.

Nellie Bly (cont.) Joseph Pulitzer

sent a special train to meet her return to San Francisco, and she was greeted by fireworks, gun salutes, brass bands and parade on Broadway.

Competition (again…) After William Randolph Hearst moved to

New York, he and Joseph Pulitzer competed for readers by making their papers more and more sensational. (Hearst had moved from San Franciso.)

Competition (cont.)

In ______, Hearst purchased The New York Morning Journal and entered into a head-to-head circulation war with his former mentor, Joseph Pulitzer, owner of The New York World.

Competition ( cont.)

To increase circulation both started to include articles about the ________ ____________.  Many stories in both newspapers greatly exaggerated their claims to make the stories more _______________. 

Competition (cont.) Both Hearst and Pulitzer

published images of __________ troops placing Cubans into concentration camps where they suffered and died from disease and hunger.

Competition (cont.)

The American public purchased more newspapers because of the sensational writing, and this strongly encouraged Hearst’s and Pulitzer’s newspapers to write more sensationalized stories.

U.S.S. Maine

On February 15, ____, the ___ _______ exploded and sank in Havana Harbor. What caused the sinking has been a subject of debate ever since. What is known is that over ____ Americans died in the explosion. 260 American naval personnel were killed

or wounded.

U.S.S. Maine (cont.)

• Hearst and Pulitzer jumped all over this -- claiming that ______ was responsible.

• It was this event that forced the United States’ involvement in the ________ _________ _____.

The Golden Age

• This time period could be considered the Golden Age of the American Press.

• At no other time were there as many newspapers being published or read.

• The competition was fierce, but ultimately ___________ the American Newspapers.

The Golden Age (cont.)

• In addition, the emergence of the ______ and __________ presented other forms of communication -- people took advantage of these mediums to get their news.

The Modern American Press In _____, using

satellite transmission and color presses, the _________ chain established a new national newspaper, ____ _______, published and circulated throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Modern Press (cont.)

The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and USA Today are read all over the country; small towns and rural districts usually have daily or weekly local papers made up largely of ___________ matter, with a page or two of local news and editorials.

Wire Services Since the invention of the telegraph,

which enormously facilitated the rapid gathering of news, the great news agencies, such as ______ in England, and __________ _________ and United Press International in the United States, have sold their services to newspapers and to their associate members.

Continued Improvements

• Improvements in ______________ and in _______ (especially the web offset press), have enhanced the quality of print and made possible the publication of huge editions at great speed.

• Modern newspapers are supported primarily by the sale of ___________ space. Computer technology has also had an enormous impact on the production of news and newspapers.

Continued Improvements (cont.)

• By the 1990s this technology had also affected the nature of newspapers, as the first independent ___-_______ daily appeared on the Internet.

• By the decade's end some ____ papers had web sites, some of which carried news gathered by their own staffs, and papers regularly ________ themselves by publishing electronically before the print edition appeared.

Where does the Press go from here?

• Radio, television, websites, blogs -- all mediums which seem to predict the end of the American Newspaper --

• Will this be the case?