Journalism in America began as a "humble" affair and became a political force in the campaign for American independence. Following independence, the first article of U.S. Constitution guaranteed freedom of the press and speech and the American press grew rapidly following the American Revolution. The press became a key support element to the country's political parties but also organized religious institutions.
Journalist Marguerite Martyn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch made this sketch of herself interviewing a Methodist minister in 1908 for his views on marriage.
During the 19th century, newspapers began to expand and appear outside eastern U.S. cities. From the 1830s onward the penny press
began to play a major role in American journalism and technological
advancements such as the telegraph and faster printing presses in the
1840s helped expand the press of the nation as it experienced rapid
economic and demographic growth.
By 1900 major newspapers had become profitable powerhouses of advocacy, muckraking and sensationalism, along with serious, and objective news-gathering. In the early 20th century, before television, the average American read several newspapers per day. Starting in the 1920s changes in technology again morphed the nature of American journalism as radio and later, television, began to play increasingly important roles.
In the late 20th century, much of American journalism merged into big media conglomerates (principally owned by media moguls, Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch).
With the coming of digital journalism in the 21st Century, newspapers
faced a business crisis as readers turned to the internet for news and
advertisers followed them.
Origins
The history of American journalism began in 1690, when Benjamin Harris
published the first edition of "Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and
Domestic" in Boston. Harris had strong trans-Atlantic connections and
intended to publish a regular weekly newspaper along the lines of those
in London, but he did not get prior approval and his paper was
suppressed after a single edition. The first successful newspaper, The Boston News-Letter,
was launched in 1704. This time, the founder was John Campbell, the
local postmaster, and his paper proclaimed that it was "published by
authority."
As the colonies grew rapidly in the 18th century, newspapers
appeared in port cities along the East Coast, usually started by master
printers seeking a sideline. Among them was James Franklin, founder of The New England Courant (1721-1727), where he employed his younger brother, Benjamin Franklin,
as a printer's apprentice. Like many other colonial newspapers, it was
aligned with party interests. Ben Franklin was first published in his
brother's newspaper, under the pseudonym Silence Dogood
in 1722, and even his brother did not know his identity at first.
Pseudonymous publishing, a common practice of that time, protected
writers from retribution from government officials and others they
criticized, often to the point of what today would be considered libel. The content
included advertising of newly landed products, and locally produced
news items, usually based on commercial and political events. Editors
exchanged their papers and frequently reprinted news from other cities.
Essays and letters to the editor, often anonymous, provided opinions on
current issues. While the religious news was thin, writers typically
interpreted good news in terms of God's favor, and bad news as evidence
of His wrath. The fate of criminals was often cast as cautionary tales
warning of the punishment for sin.
Ben Franklin moved to Philadelphia in 1728 and took over the Pennsylvania Gazette
the following year. Ben Franklin expanded his business by essentially
franchising other printers in other cities, who published their own
newspapers. By 1750, 14 weekly newspapers were published in the six
largest colonies. The largest and most successful of these could be
published up to three times per week.
American Independence
The Stamp Act of 1765 taxed paper, and the burden of the tax fell on printers, who led a successful fight to repeal the tax.
By the early 1770s, most newspapers supported the Patriot cause;
Loyalist newspapers were often forced to shut down or move to Loyalist
strongholds, especially New York City. Publishers up and down the colonies widely reprinted the pamphlets by Thomas Paine, especially "Common Sense" (1776). His Crisis essays first appeared in the newspaper press starting in December, 1776, when he warned:
- These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Anne Catherine Hoof Green, publisher of the Maryland Gazette, 1767-1775.
When the war for independence began in 1775, 37 weekly newspapers
were in operation; 20 survived the war, and 33 new ones started up. The
British blockade sharply curtailed imports of paper, ink, and new
equipment; causing thinner newspapers and publication delays. When the
war ended in 1782, there were 35 newspapers with a combined circulation
of about 40,000 copies per week, and an actual readership in the
hundreds of thousands. These newspapers played a major role in defining
the grievances of the colonists against the British government in the
1765-1775 era, and in supporting the American Revolution.
Every week the Maryland Gazette
of Annapolis promoted the Patriot cause and also reflected informed
Patriot viewpoints. From the time of the Stamp Act, publisher Jonas
Green vigorously protested British actions. When he died in 1767, his
widow Anne Catherine Hoof Green became the first woman to hold a top job at an American newspaper.
A strong supporter of colonial rights, she published the newspapers as
well as many pamphlets with the help of two sons; She died in 1775.
During the war, contributors debated disestablishment of the
Anglican church in several states, use of coercion against neutrals and
Loyalists, the meaning of Paine's "Common Sense", and the confiscation
of Loyalist property. Much attention was devoted to the details of
military campaigns, typically with an upbeat optimistic tone.
Patriot editors often sharply criticized government action or
inaction. In peacetime, criticism might lead to a loss of valuable
printing contract, but in wartime, the government needed the newspapers.
Furthermore, there were enough different state governments and
political factions that editors could be protected by their friends.
When Thomas Paine lost his patronage job with Congress because of a
letter he published, the state government soon hired him.
First Party System
Newspapers flourished in the new republic — by 1800, there were about
234 being published — and tended to be very partisan about the form of
the new federal government, which was shaped by successive Federalist or Republican presidencies. Newspapers directed much abuse toward various politicians, and the eventual duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr was fueled by controversy in newspaper pages.
Federalist
poster about 1800. Washington (in heaven) tells partisans to keep the
pillars of Federalism, Republicanism, and Democracy
By 1796, both parties sponsored national networks of weekly newspapers, which attacked each other vehemently. The Federalist and Republican newspapers of the 1790s traded vicious barbs against their enemies.
The most heated rhetoric came in debates over the French Revolution, especially the Jacobin Terror
of 1793–94 when the guillotine was used daily. Nationalism was a high
priority, and the editors fostered an intellectual nationalism typified
by the Federalist effort to stimulate a national literary culture
through their clubs and publications in New York and Philadelphia, and Noah Webster's efforts to simplify and Americanize the language.
Penny press, telegraph, and party politics
As
American cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington
grew, so did newspapers. Larger printing presses, the telegraph, and
other technological innovations allowed newspapers to print thousands of
copies, boost circulation, and increase revenue. In the largest cities,
some papers were politically independent. But most, especially in
smaller cities, had close ties political parties, who used them for
communication and campaigning. Their editorials explained the party
position on current issues, and condemned the opposition.
The first newspaper to fit the 20th century style of a newspaper was the New York Herald, founded in 1835 and published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr. It was politically independent, and became the first newspaper to have city staff covering regular beats and spot news,
along with regular business and Wall Street coverage. In 1838 Bennett
also organized the first foreign correspondent staff of six men in
Europe and assigned domestic correspondents to key cities, including the
first reporter to regularly cover Congress.
The leading partisan newspaper was the New York Tribune, which began publishing in 1841 and was edited by Horace Greeley.
It was the first newspaper to gain national prominence; by 1861, it
shipped thousands of copies of its daily and weekly editions to
subscribers. Greeley also organized a professional news staff and
embarked on frequent publishing crusades for causes he believed in. The
Tribune was the first newspaper, in 1886, to use the linotype machine, invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler,
which rapidly increased the speed and accuracy with which type could be
set. it allowed a newspaper to publish multiple editions the same day,
updating the front page with the latest business and sports news.
The New York Times,
now one of the best-known newspapers in the world, was founded in 1851
by George Jones and Henry Raymond. It established the principle of
balanced reporting in high-quality writing. Its prominence emerged in
the 20th century.
Political partisanship
The parties created an internal communications system designed to keep in close touch with the voters.
The critical communications system was a national network of
partisan newspapers. Nearly all weekly and daily papers were party
organs until the early 20th century. Thanks to the invention of
high-speed presses for city papers, and free postage for rural sheets,
newspapers proliferated. In 1850, the Census counted 1,630 party
newspapers (with a circulation of about one per voter), and only 83
"independent" papers. The party line was behind every line of news copy,
not to mention the authoritative editorials, which exposed the
"stupidity" of the enemy and the "triumphs" of the party in every issue.
Editors were senior party leaders and often were rewarded with
lucrative postmasterships. Top publishers, such as Schuyler Colfax in 1868, Horace Greeley in 1872, Whitelaw Reid in 1892, Warren Harding in 1920 and James Cox also in 1920, were nominated on the national ticket.
Kaplan outlines the systematic methods by which newspapers
expressed their partisanship. Paid advertising was unnecessary, as the
party encouraged all its loyal supporters to subscribe:
- Editorials explained in detail the strengths of the party platform, and the weaknesses and fallacies of the opposition.
- As the election neared, there were lists of approved candidates.
- Party meetings, parades, and rallies were publicized ahead of time and reported in depth afterward. Excitement and enthusiasm were exaggerated, while the dispirited enemy rallies were ridiculed.
- Speeches were often transcribed in full detail, even long ones that ran thousands of words.
- Woodcut illustrations celebrated the party symbols and portray the candidates.
- Editorial cartoons ridiculed the opposition and promoted the party ticket.
- As the election neared, predictions and informal polls guaranteed victory.
- The newspapers printed filled-out ballots which party workers distributed on election day so voters could drop them directly into the boxes. Everyone could see who the person voted for.
- The first news reports the next day, often claimed victory – sometimes it was days or weeks before the editor admitted defeat.
By the time of the Civil War, many moderately sized cities had at
least two newspapers, often with very different political perspectives.
As the South began the task of seceding from the Union, some papers in
the North recommended that the South should be allowed to secede. “The
government, however, was not willing to allow 'sedition' to masquerade
(in its opinion) as 'freedom of the press.'” Several newspapers were
closed by government action. After the massive Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run,
angry mobs in the North destroyed substantial property owned by
remaining “successionist” newspapers. Those still in publication
quickly came to support the war, both to avoid mob action and to retain
their audience.
After 1900, William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer
and other big city politician-publishers discovered they could make far
more profit through advertising, at so many dollars per thousand
readers. By becoming non-partisan they expanded their base to include
the opposition party and the fast-growing number of consumers who read
the ads but were less and less interested in politics. There was less
political news after 1900, apparently because citizens became more
apathetic, and shared their partisan loyalties with the new professional
sports teams that attracted growing audiences.
Whitelaw Reid, the powerful long-time editor of the Republican New York Tribune, emphasized the importance of partisan newspapers in 1879:
The true statesman and the really influential editor are those who are able to control and guide parties...There is an old question as to whether a newspaper controls public opinion or public opinion controls the newspaper. This at least is true: that editor best succeeds who best interprets the prevailing and the better tendencies of public opinion, and, who, whatever his personal views concerning it, does not get himself too far out of relations to it. He will understand that a party is not an end, but a means; will use it if it leads to his end, -- will use some other if that serve better, but will never commit the folly of attempting to reach the end without the means...Of all the puerile follies that have masqueraded before High Heaven in the guise of Reform, the most childish has been the idea that the editor could vindicate his independence only by sitting on the fence and throwing stones with impartial vigor alike at friend and foe.
Newspapers expand west
As
the country and its inhabitants explored and settled further west the
American landscape changed. In order to supply these new pioneers of
western territories with information, publishing was forced to expand
past the major presses of Washington D.C. and New York. Most frontier
newspapers were creations of the influx of people and wherever a new
town sprang up a newspaper was sure to follow.
However other times a printer was hired by a town settler to move to
the location and set up a newspaper in order to legitimize the town and
draw other settlers. Many of the newspapers and journals published in
these Midwestern developments were weekly papers. Homesteaders would
watch their cattle or farms during the week and then on their weekend
journey readers would collect their papers while they did their business
in town. One reason that so many newspapers were started during the
conquest of the West was that homesteaders were required to publish
notices of their land claims in local newspapers. Some of these papers
died out after the land rushes ended, or when the railroad bypassed the town.
The rise of the wire services
The American Civil War
had a profound effect on American journalism. Large newspapers hired
war correspondents to cover the battlefields, with more freedom than
correspondents today enjoy. These reporters used the new telegraph and
expanding railways to move news reports faster to their newspapers. The
cost of sending telegraphs helped create a new concise or "tight" style
of writing which became the standard for journalism through the next
century.
The ever-growing demand for urban newspapers to provide more news
led to the organization of the first of the wire services, a
cooperative between six large New York City-based newspapers led by David Hale, the publisher of the Journal of Commerce, and James Gordon Bennett, to provide coverage of Europe for all of the papers together. What became the Associated Press received the first cable transmission ever of European news through the trans-Atlantic cable in 1858.
New forms of journalism
The New York dailies continued to redefine journalism. James Bennett's Herald, for example, didn't just write about the disappearance of David Livingstone in Africa; they sent Henry Stanley to find him, which he did, in Uganda.
The success of Stanley's stories prompted Bennett to hire more of what
would turn out to be investigative journalists. He also was the first
American publisher to bring an American newspaper to Europe by founding
the Paris Herald, which was the precursor of the International Herald Tribune. Charles Anderson Dana of the New York Sun developed the idea of the human interest story and a better definition of news value, including uniqueness of a story.
Yellow journalism
William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer both owned newspapers in the American West, and both established papers in New York City: Hearst's New York Journal in 1883 and Pulitzer's New York World
in 1896. Their stated mission to defend the public interest, their
circulation wars and sensational reporting spread to many other
newspapers and became known as "yellow journalism." The public may have initially benefited as "muckraking" journalism
exposed corruption, but its often excessively sensational coverage of a
few juicy stories alienated many readers.
Headlines
More
generally, newspapers in large cities in the 1890s began using
large-font multi-column headlines to attract passers-by to buy the
paper. Previously headlines had seldom been more than one column wide,
although multicolumn-width headlines were possible on the presses then
in use. The change required typesetters to break with tradition and many
small-town papers were reluctant to change.
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era saw a strong middle class demand for reform, which the leading newspapers and magazines supported with editorial crusades.
Building on President McKinley's effective use of the press, President Theodore Roosevelt made his White House
the center of news every day, providing interviews and photo
opportunities. After noticing the White House reporters huddled outside
in the rain one day, he gave them their own room inside, effectively
inventing the presidential press briefing. The grateful press, with
unprecedented access to the White House, rewarded Roosevelt with intense
favorable coverage; The nation's editorial cartoonists loved him even
more. Roosevelt's main goal was to promote discussion and support for his package of Square Deal reform policies among his base in the middle-class. When the media strayed too far from his list of approved targets, he criticized them as mud flinging muckrakers.
Journalism historians pay by far the most attention to the big
city newspapers, largely ignoring small-town dailies and weeklies that
proliferated and dealt heavily in local news. Rural America was also
served by specialized farm magazines. By 1910 most farmers subscribed to
one. Their editors typically promoted efficiency in farming, With
reports of new machinery, new seats, new techniques, and county and
state fairs.
Muckraking
Muckrakers were investigative journalists, sponsored by large
national magazines, who investigated political corruption, as well as
misdeeds by corporations and labor unions.
Exposés attracted a middle-class upscale audience during the Progressive Era, especially in 1902 – 1912. By the 1900s, such major magazines as Collier's Weekly, Munsey's Magazine and McClure's Magazine were sponsoring exposés for a national audience. The January 1903 issue of McClure's marked the beginning of muckraking journalism, while the muckrakers would get their label later. Ida M. Tarbell ("The History of Standard Oil"), Lincoln Steffens ("The Shame of Minneapolis") and Ray Stannard Baker
("The Right to Work"), simultaneously published famous works in that
single issue. Claude H. Wetmore and Lincoln Steffens' previous article
"Tweed Days in St. Louis", in McClure's October 1902 issue was the first muckraking article.
President Roosevelt enjoyed very close relationships with the
press, which he used to keep in daily contact with his middle-class
base. Before taking office, he had made a living as a writer and
magazine editor. He loved talking with intellectuals, authors and
writers. He drew the line, however, at expose-oriented scandal-mongering
journalists who during his term set magazine subscriptions soaring with
attacks on corrupt politicians, mayors, and corporations. Roosevelt
himself was not a target, but his speech in 1906 coined the term "muckraker"
for unscrupulous journalists making wild charges. "The liar," he said,
"is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form
of slander he may be worse than most thieves."
The muckraking style fell out of fashion after 1917, as the media
pulled together to support the war effort with minimum criticism of
personalities.
In the 1960s, investigative journalism came back into play with the 'Washington Post
exposés of the Watergate scandal. At the local level, the alternative
press movement emerged, typified by alternative weekly newspapers like The Village Voice in New York City and The Phoenix in Boston, as well as political magazines like Mother Jones and The Nation.
Professionalization
Winfield
argues that 1908 represented a turning point in the professionalization
of journalism, as characterized by the new journalism schools, the
founding of the National Press Club, and such technological innovations as newsreels, the use of halftones to print photographs, and changes in newspaper design.
Reporters wrote the stories that sold papers, but shared only a
fraction of the income. The highest salaries went to New York reporters,
topping out at $40 to $60 a week. Pay scales were lower in smaller
cities, only $5 to $20 a week at smaller dailies. The quality of
reporting increased sharply, and its reliability improved; drunkenness
became less and less of a problem. Pulitzer gave Columbia University $2 million in 1912 to create a school of journalism that has retained leadership status into the 21st century. Other notable schools were founded at the University of Missouri and the Medill School Northwestern University.
Freedom of the press became well-established legal principle, although President Theodore Roosevelt
tried to sue major papers for reporting corruption in the purchase of
the Panama Canal rights. The federal court threw out the lawsuit, ending
the only attempt by the federal government to sue newspapers for libel
since the days of the Sedition Act
of 1798. Roosevelt had a more positive impact on journalism -- he
provided a steady stream of lively copy, making the White House the
center of national reporting.
Rise of the African-American press
Rampant discrimination against African-Americans did not prevent them
from founding their own daily and weekly newspapers, especially in
large cities, and these flourished because of the loyalty of their
readers. The first black newspaper was the Freedom's Journal, first published on March 16, 1827 by John B. Russwurm and Samuel Cornish. Abolitionist Philip Alexander Bell (1808-1886) started the Colored American in New York City in 1837, then became co-editor of The Pacific Appeal and founder of The Elevator, both significant Reconstruction Era newspapers based in San Francisco.
Poster from the U.S. Office of War Information, 1943
By the 20th century, African-American newspapers flourished in the
major cities, with their publishers playing a major role in politics and
business affairs, including
- Robert Sengstacke Abbott ( 1870-1940), publisher of the Chicago Defender;
- John Mitchell, Jr. (1863 – 1929), editor of the Richmond Planet and president of the National Afro-American Press Association;
- Anthony Overton (1865 – 1946), publisher of the Chicago Bee, and
- Robert Lee Vann (1879 – 1940), the publisher and editor of the Pittsburgh Courier.
Foreign-language newspapers
As
immigration rose dramatically during the last half of the 19th century,
many ethnic groups sponsored newspapers in their native languages to
cater to their fellow expatriates. The Germans created the largest
network, but their press was largely shut down in 1917-1918. Yiddish
Newspapers appeared for New York Jews. They had the effect of
introducing newcomers from Eastern Europe to American culture and
society.
In states like Nebraska, founded on large immigrants populations,
where many residents moved from Czechoslovakia, Germany and Denmark
foreign-language papers provided a place for these people to make
cultural and economic contributions to their new country and home.
Today, Spanish language newspapers such as El Diario La Prensa (founded in 1913) exist in Hispanic strongholds, but their circulations are small.
Between the wars
Broadcast
journalism began slowly in the 1920s, at a time when stations broadcast
music and occasional speeches, and expanded slowly in the 1930s as
radio moved to drama and entertainment. Radio exploded in importance
during World War II, but after 1950 was overtaken by television news.
The newsreel developed in the 1920s and flourished before the daily
television news broadcasts in the 1950s doomed its usefulness.
Luce empire
The first issue of Time (March 3, 1923), featuring House Speaker Joseph G. Cannon.
News magazines flourished from the late 19th century on, such as Outlook and Review of Reviews. However, in 1923 Henry Luce (1898-1967) transformed the genre with Time,
which became a favorite news source for the upscale middle-class. Luce,
a conservative Republican, was called "the most influential private
citizen in the America of his day."
He launched and closely supervised a stable of magazines that
transformed journalism and the reading habits of upscale Americans. Time summarized and interpreted the week's news. Life
was a picture magazine of politics, culture and society that dominated
American visual perceptions in the era before television. Fortune explored in depth the economy and the world of business, introducing to executives avant-garde ideas such as Keynesianism. Sports Illustrated probed beneath the surface of the game to explore the motivations and strategies of the teams and key players. Add in his radio projects and newsreels,
and Luce created a multimedia corporation to rival that of Hearst and
other newspaper chains. Luce, born in China to missionary parents,
demonstrated a missionary zeal to make the nation worthy of dominating
the world in what he called the "American Century." Luce hired
outstanding journalists—some of them serious intellectuals, as well as talented editors. By the late 20th century, however, all the Luce magazines and their imitators (such as Newsweek and Look) had drastically scaled back. Newsweek ended its print edition in 2013.
21st century Internet
Following the emergence of browsers, USA Today
became the first newspaper to offer an online version of its
publication in 1995, though CNN launched its own site later that year.
However, especially after 2000, the Internet brought "free" news and
classified advertising to audiences that no longer saw a reason for
subscriptions, undercutting the business model of many daily newspapers.
Bankruptcy loomed across the U.S. and did hit such major papers as the Rocky Mountain News (Denver), the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, among many others. Chapman and Nuttall
find that proposed solutions, such as multiplatforms, paywalls,
PR-dominated news gathering, and shrinking staffs have not resolved the
challenge. The result, they argue, is that journalism today is
characterized by four themes: personalization, globalization,
localization, and
pauperization.
Nip presents a typology of five models of audience connections:
traditional journalism, public journalism, interactive journalism,
participatory journalism, and citizen journalism. He identifies the
higher goal of public journalism as engaging the people as citizens and
helping public deliberation.
Investigative journalism declined at major daily newspapers in
the 2000s, and many reporters formed their own non-profit investigative
newsrooms, for example ProPublica on the national level, Texas Tribune at the state level and Voice of OC at the local level.
A 2014 study by the University of Indiana under The American Journalist
header, a series of studies that go back to the 1970s, found that of
the journalists they surveyed, significantly more identified as
Democrats than Republicans (28% verse 7%). This coincided with reduced staffing at local papers and possibly their replacement by online outlets in eastern liberal cites.
Historiography
Journalism historian David Nord has argued that in the 1960s and 1970s:
- In journalism history and media history, a new generation of scholars ... criticized traditional histories of the media for being too insular, too decontextualized, too uncritical, too captive to the needs of professional training, and too enamored of the biographies of men and media organizations.
In 1974, James W. Carey identified the ‘Problem of Journalism History’. The field was
dominated by a Whig interpretation of journalism history.
- This views journalism history as the slow, steady expansion of freedom and knowledge from the political press to the commercial press, the setbacks into sensationalism and yellow journalism, the forward thrust into muck raking and social responsibility....the entire story is framed by those large impersonal forces buffeting the press: industrialization, urbanization and mass democracy.
O'Malley says the criticism went too far, because there was much of value in the deep scholarship of the earlier period.
