Download - History of Mass Communication (Newspapers)
HISTO
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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