Comm455/History of Journalism

A little over two years ago on March 30, 2010, two brothers, Jamal Blakeney and Kevin Blakeney-Attaway, were shot while walking home from a funeral on South Capitol Street, Washington DC. DC has become unfortunately infamous for its violence; just under ten years ago, the dreaded and forever horribly remembered DC Sniper shootings took place that left […]

By: Jessica Farley As Christian Bale once demonstrated in the cult classic “Newsies,” being a paper boy is not a job to be taken lightly. For years, the paperboy has been a symbol of hard work, youthful determination, and American values. However, in today’s world of Kindles and Twitter, the paperboy is rapidly becoming nothing […]

News value stems from how much prominence individuals give to a chosen media outlet. For most consumers of the news, value is obtained from independence and accuracy. If a news outlet is reporting something that is false, they have lost the trust of their audience. For the consumer, that value is lost and the news outlet will […]

The combination of the words exposed and media in a single sentence often conjure thoughts of naked celebrities and nail-bitingly insignificant scandals.  The impact of media has further reaching implications, however, than the latest tabloid headline.  It has the impact of exposure. In the 1950s and 60s the U.S. was in the middle of the […]

When students hear the term “yellow journalism,” the first thought that comes to mind is the sensationalized coverage of the 1895 Spanish American War. However, this practice is neither confined to that time period, nor is it extinct. On the 11th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Americans relive the horror of that fateful […]

It has been argued in several circles of journalism that journalists are storytellers. The evidence that propels journalists as storytellers comes to us from as far ago as the fifth century B.C. It was in that time that rhetoric was born, where the well respected citizens were relied on to tell the truth of their […]

The wait for urgent news causes universal anxiety. Once the anticipation has become too much to bear, we reassure ourselves with a universal anecdote; “no news is good news.”  Is no news really good news? The effect of censorship on news during the French Revolution tells us otherwise. News publications during the French Revolution needed […]

Get it right the first time! That is what Jon Stewart of The Daily Show practically meant when he emphasized the huge blunder that CNN and Fox News had committed when they wrongly reported on the Supreme Court ruling of the Affordable Healthcare Act.  Thanks to electronic news these days, it is easy for mistakes like […]

A form of the earliest newspapers, the Roman Acta Diurna were a daily posting of news from the Roman officials. Unlike the flimsy and disposable modern newspaper, the Actas were carved onto stone and metal and published in the forums for public viewing. The first Acta was published sometime around 131 B.C. during the Roman […]