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Sports journalism!

Posted by: | September 20, 2010 | No Comment |
sports-journalism5

From Google Images

Early signs of Sports journalism date back to the 1400s.

Sports reporting was done by word of Mouth until the letter press was created. Now sports reporting has gone to a whole new level with its own channels on TV.

Channels such as ESPN and Comcast Sports starting to be come popular in the late 1900s.  Sports started to fade out of general news when these channels arose.

ESPN

ESPN From Google Images

Sports Journalism is more tolerated and seen in the United States. reporters are allowed in the Locker room for stories regardless of sex. A huge scandal in going on in the News now about Women being allowed in men locker rooms.

Ines Sainz is a Mexican reporter who is centered around the controversy. She was reportedly harassed in the New York Jet’s locker room.

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Ines Sainz From Google Images

Women have become very popular in sports broadcasting over the last few years. It is not unlikely to see a women reporting and covering Men’s Sports.

Sports journalism has involved from word of mouth to a section in the news to its own journalism. There are hundreds of sports magazines, radio stations, and shows.

Journalism itself has involved dramatically over the years and Sports Journalism will keep growing.

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Newspaper survival in an online world

Posted by: | September 16, 2010 | No Comment |

It used to be common for countless Americans to read a newspaper found daily on their doorstep.  For years, this remained the main source for news.  Times are changing, and with a saturated online news market, many people are looking elsewhere for news.

The New York Times claims that newspapers nationwide have recently seen a weekly circulation drop at an average of 9 percent; the San Francisco Chronicle as high as 23 percent.

The newspaper industry has also seen some well-established papers collapse, such as the Rocky Mountain News in 2009 after 150 years of circulation.  With more and more people relying on the internet for their news fix, what can newspapers do to stay alive?

Mashable.com has a list of twelve things that newspapers could do to survive, and they include:

  1. Linking to outside news sources to contextualize current events.
  2. Reporting in real-time; utilizing websites like Twitter.
  3. Getting the reader involved with the story, especially with social media.
  4. Restructuring the newspaper to reflect a startup business than a corporate setting.

News Corporation’s CEO Rupert Murdoch told an audience of Australian TV viewers in 2008 that newspapers will remain in existence in the future, but they must re-evaluate how they serve their readers to survive.  He claims that newspapers can brand their image onto cross-platform outlets and implement innovative features such as utilizing mobile devices and RSS feeds.

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The New Coffeehouse

Posted by: | September 15, 2010 | No Comment |

Let’s face it: coffee and news go great together. It’s an iconic image of the working world to see a newspaper or magazine laid next to a hot cup of black coffee. When a person picks up the paper with one hand, what do they usually have in the other?
A cup of coffee.

Until the 17th century had hit its halfway mark, news had been conveyed by way of “spoken word”. In other words, reporting the news was as simple as someone stepping out onto a street and shouting. When the first few coffeehouses were opened in the mid-17th century, people sought out these coffeehouses as a more intimate setting in which they could talk about the latest news, debate popular politics, and conduct business.

There were nouvellistes (or, professional news tellers) that were paid to know and convey the latest on politics, war or culture; there were groups of well-organized people that funneled in the information they wanted.

Less than 15 years after the first coffeehouse had been opened in Oxford, England, there were more than 3,000 coffeehouses in the country. By 1739, there were 551 coffeehouses in London alone, and each attracting a specific crowd of people (Whigs, Tories, merchants, lawyers, people of every occupation and attitude).

Coffee shops house a variety of conversations that are quite different from those in the past and that are no longer motivated by professional nouvellistes.

Coffee shops these days are not meant to be where heated discussions about political issues are debated and where social reform is sparked, they’re actually places where teenagers might come to hang out after school or where adults go to retreat into a private space.

But the essence of what coffeehouses traditionally were in history is not about be lost.

The candid discussions of what’s happening in the world today is not taking place in a setting where a person goes for a coffee. Instead, it’s taking place in the digital world of internet social media. Where once there were coffeehouses, cafes and taverns, now there is Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare and countless other programs, the new hosts of “spoken news”.

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Overcoming Early Government Censorship

Posted by: | September 15, 2010 | No Comment |

Benjamin Harris published the first American newspaper, “Publick Occurences“, in 1690. 14 years passed before America saw another newspaper published.

The first and only edition of Publick Occurences

The first and only edition of Publick Occurences

Because Harris published the paper without a government license and and it contained “reflections of a very high order,” Harris’ newspaper was shut down after the first issue.

The “Boston News-Letter” may have been the first successful American newspaper, but newspapers still faced opposition and oppression from the government almost 90 years later in 1790.

Benjamin Franklin Bache, Benjamin Franklin’s grandson, published “The Philadelphia Aurora,” a newspaper that openly and outwardly opposed the Federalists in charge of government.

Because of denouncement against the government, Bache was thrown in jail, even though the First Amendment existed at the time.

Bache’s actions caused the government to implement the Sedition Act which made it:

criminal to “write, print, utter, or publish” any “false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either House of the Congress of the United States, or of the President of the United States” with “intent to defame” any such parties or to bring them “into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them . . . the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States; or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States.”

Even though Bache had the freedom of press and speech, his writings were perceived so powerfully by the government that they created an act that basically prevented anyone from publicly disagreeing with the government.

Now with the Internet and everything available on the Internet at our disposal, we as citizens have the rightto share whatever we please as long as it isn’t libelous or slanderous.

Because of Bache, Harris and other 18th century publishers/writers, we truly have the freedoms of press, speech, religion, petition and assembly.

However it is the duty of the people, not the government, to uphold each other to standards of credibility and ethics.

Hopefully it will stay this way.

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History of the Distribution of News

Posted by: | September 15, 2010 | No Comment |

40,000BC: Americas are settled. News spreads by word of mouth.

59 BC: spread of news began in Ancient Rome, with the Acta Diurna, made public by Julius Caesar. These were government announcement bulletins which were carved in metal or stone, and posted in public places.

618: tipao, early government- produced news sheets, distributed in China during the Han Dynasty.

1432: letter press is first used by Johann Gutenberg, allowing news to be printed quicker and made larger distributions easier.

1605: the Relation aller Furnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien by Johann Carolus (Strasborg) is written – recognized as the first newspaper.

1656: the Opregte Haarlemsche Courant, first published in the Netherlands – oldest newspaper still printed.

1930s: “newspaper cars” distribute papers in Germany.

1940s: United States – newspapers are commonly distributed by newsboys.

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Newsboy Iowa City 1945. Arthur Rothstein

1950s: newspapers can be bought at newspaper vendors and newspaper vending machines, on the streets.

1990s: news is available via 24-hour t.v. channels and the Internet. Paid circulation decreases and advertising has shifted from print to new media.

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History of Radio

Posted by: | September 15, 2010 | 1 Comment |

Radio wasnt invented on a certain day or by a certain person. It is a collection of ideas and discoveries put together.

James Clerk Maxwell and Hienrich Hertz were responsible for electromagnetic waves in the 19th century. Guglielmo Marconi discovered how to turn those waves into coded messages.Lee De Forest and Reginald Fessenden turned coded messages into human speech in the early 20th century. However it wasnt until 1920 that Harry P. Davis used radio for a public form of communication.

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Early Radio from Google Images

The first Radio station was KDKA. It was based in Pittsburgh and launched by Westinghouse.  The network made its money by selling radios until 1922 when the phone companies started charging tolls.

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Early Station from Google Images

KDKA’s first broadcasting was the Harding-Cox election. Radio was a new news media. It announced news and played music as well as  programs/shows.  Radio kept up to date with Presidential elections and wars.

Radio Journalism became the voice of the newspaper.

Radio proved that it was a  force in the United States when The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1947.

Radio broadcasters had a simple short style of reporting. Sentences are short and easy to comprehend. Much in part to the fact because in the 1920s many people were not smart enough to comprehend anything complex.

Radio now has grown into a mass media. There are over a million stations including FM, AM, and XM.

Radio is now mostly used for entertainment and music.  The main sources for news are now Television and The Internet.

(Information Taken from “A History Of News” Mitchell Stephens)

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Are newspapers dead?

Posted by: | September 15, 2010 | No Comment |

complete front page collection of Obama's inauguration newspapers

Nobody gets their information from newspapers anymore. Right? Newspapers are dying and no one cares because everyone gets their information online. That is the conventional wisdom.

It is not the whole truth because not everyone gets their information online. They either do not have access to the internet or they prefer newspapers.

Newspapers are accessible everywhere. Anyone who can read can find out what is important just by looking at the front page headlines. They do not need to spend more than a few cents to get informed.

People have been reading some form of newspaper since paper was invented. The Romans were organized enough to record the daily records of their Senate in the acta. Later in 1566, handwritten papers containing the news were circulated in Venice. During the Revolutionary War, newspapers were often read and passed around to friends and neighbors.

With the arrival of the penny press in 1833 and increasing literacy rates in the country during the 19th century, newspapers were the best way to get information.

Radio and later, television news reports loosen the grip newspapers had on disseminating information. The internet has caused a major revolution in the way news is distributed.

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China: Pioneers of Technology

Posted by: | September 15, 2010 | No Comment |

The Chinese inventions of paper and the printing press are often overlooked by the Western World. However, China was the first country to improve on the paper making process and created the first moveable type printing press, without which journalism would not have evolved to where it is today.

Stephens cites A.D. 105 as the year Ts’ai Lun invented paper. In fact, paper scraps have actually been found in China from as early as 140 B.C.

Early Chinese paper from 100 B.C.

Early Chinese paper from 100 B.C.

Ts’ai Lun is actually credited with improving the paper making process, from using the pulp of tough bamboo to sesame fiber.

China also had the first moveable type printing press roughly 400 years before Johann Gutenberg in 1045. Bi Sheng, inventor of the moveable type, craved 3,000 of Chinese characters in wooden blocks that were arranged on an iron board when an article was to be printed. Later on, clay was used to make the characters.

Two Chinese printing tables with their 3,000 characters

Two Chinese printing tables with their 3,000 characters

Even though Gutenberg invented his own printing press in 1450, the Chinese still made a hugh impact in the technology of print journalism.

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A violation of 1st Amendment rights?

Posted by: | September 13, 2010 | No Comment |

The First Amendment Coalition reported in early Sep. that attorneys general in 18 states “demanded” that Craigslist.org removethe sites adult services page, arguing that Craigslist was not doing enough to stop ads for “illicit services” in Aug.  Last week Craigslist placed a black “Censored” bar over the adult services page.

Did the attorneys generals over step there bounds? Has state action taken place? Or did Craigslist simply crumble to the threat of a lawsuit?

“Craigslist’s response is itself an act of free speech — a cleaver response to its legitimate concern that the attorneys general are over-reaching in their effort to regulate Craigslist’s content,” said Thomas Burk, an attorney at David Wright Tremaine on The Hill.com.

According to PCWorld.com Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has been “adamant about keeping Craigslist more about a community than a dysfunctional corporate entity.” Reported polls from The Washington Post and Mashable show that “many find nothing wrong with the ads or prostitution itself.”

Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier from Hillsborough has set up a House Judiciary Committee hearing this month to look into how sites such as Craigslist are being used to “facilitate criminal activity.”

Reports state that the adult services site will not remain permanently down, but the question still stands in the mean time: has Craigslist first amendment rights been violated?

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Opening credits: ‘Absence of Malice’

Posted by: | June 5, 2010 | No Comment |

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Is social media a fad?

Posted by: | January 13, 2010 | No Comment |

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Photography and Journalism

Posted by: | December 15, 2009 | No Comment |

In the 19th century, journalism experienced beneficial changes because of the development of photography.

Louis Jacque Mande Daguerre, a French painter, made the first non-fading photograph in 1829. He called this photo a “daguerreotype.” Daguerre accomplished this by using light-sensitive salts that captured images on metal plates.

First Photograph by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre

First Photograph by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre

 After this discovery, photography became increasingly popular. But, the mass production of photographs had not been developed yet.

So, publications that wanted to use pictures had to use woodcuts. One of the first publications to use these woodcuts for pictures was the Illustrated London News in 1842.

With the development of a half-toning process for photography in the 1880’s, photographs were finally able to be mass-produced and the first photographs were appearing in newspapers.

Photography in conjunction with news stories is known as photojournalism.

The development of photojournalism in the late 19th century completely changed the face of journalism. It let readers see images of people and places that most had never been seen before, as well as making the stories more believable. This allowed people to feel more connected with the events going on in the world, just like it continues to do in today’s society.

It’s hard to open any type of modern news publication and not see a photograph. Photojournalism has become so common, that a news article doesn’t seem complete without a picture.

Without the development of photojournalism, journalism would not have the same impact on society as it does today.

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