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Technology: helping the spread of news (part 2)

Posted by: | October 22, 2009 | No Comment |

In our last blog entry, we discussed how technological advancements like the printing press and steam engine (see below) have helped spread information and the news to the public-at-large.   In this entry, we will continue to discuss how technology has helped shape the spread of information and the news.

Steam printing press, West Sussex Gazette, Arundel, c1890

Source: http://www.westsussex.gov.uk/apps/eLearning/medium_image.jsp?imageid=1311

Like the printing press and the steam engine, the invention of the single wire telegraph (see picture below) by Samuel Morse (who also invented Morse Code) in the 1830’s was another technological achievement that helped spread information and news around to the public.  According to Mitchell Stephens, author of “The History of News“, Morse showed off his invention to a group of people congregating at a railroad station in Washington D.C. by announcing the presidential and vice-presidential nominee ticket for the Whig Party in 1844.    

180px-Morse_tegraph

Source: Wikipedia

Another technological achievement that happened around this period, according to Mitchell Stephens, was the creation of the first transatlantic cable  by Cyrus W. Field (see picture below) in 1858, which established a faster means of communication for talking with people in Europe from the United States, as opposed to, the old fashion way of sending handwritten letters from the United States to their destinations in Europe by ships. 

p_field_01

Source: PBS

Perhaps, one of the most important technological advancements to help spread information and news around easier and more effectively was the invention of the radio in the 1890’s.  Mitchell Stephens mentions in his book, “The History of News”, that Guglielmo Marconi patented his “wireless telegraphy” or radio in England in 1895.  Further, improvements on this new technology,  would lead to the creation of radio stations.   The first radio station in the United States was KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and it first broadcasted the results of the 1920 presidential election between Harding and Cox on November 2, 1920.   The radio would become a popular medium(see picture below of girl listening to radio)  to find information and the news. By 1927, according to Mitchell Stephens, there would 733 radio stations operating in the United States.

Girl_listening_to_radio

Source: Wikipedia      

Overall, as one can see, technological advancements like the telegraph and the radio have helped in the spread of news and information.  In the next blog posting, more advancements in technology will be discussed to help people further understand how technology has helped in acquiring news and information more easily and effectively.

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A history of aggregation

Posted by: | October 22, 2009 | 1 Comment |

When Julius Caesar first made government records public, audiences other than wealthy elites and government officials finally had access to Roman news. With the access, came the urge to tell. With this mindset, pen and paper, aggregation was born.

Early aggregators copied the posted news by hand and then sent them in “packets” to whoever requested them. Also, Mitchell Stephens says that the Roman politician Caelius mentioned having to pay for a news packet to send to Cicero, the famous orator who was stationed in far away Asia Minor. This packet was made up of aggregated news that wasn’t yet distributed (but was posted in public) by the government.

Early news was spread in letters from Caelius to Cicero.

(Picture taken from Inside by Shell’s Blog.)

Early aggregators put everything they could into these packets. Indeed, Cicero complained about sensationalism and “tittle tattle” that was prevalent in these early news packets. But after studying societies that went insane without news sources, Communication 455 students knew Cicero wasn’t going to make his complaints that big of a deal. He had news. He had updates. He had them organized into a neat little packet.

How would he know that these little packets would take on a life of their own?

Aggregation took on several forms. In publications, and specifically the acta, different types of news were printed in different news products. Already there were separate actas for many differenet government services. One could say that these types of news were aggregated and collected into their own news sources, since the only direct form of news straight from the source was the original acta posted by the government to the people.

  • Coffeehouse and salon owners began to make their own newssheets to serve their specific clientele.
  • Fast forward to the late 1990s: Matt Drudge was spreading the word of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky in The Drudge Report.
  • Fast forward to 2009: Jim Romenesko is now the leading source of news about the media, despite not writing an inkling of his own news. He looks at articles online (liken that to viewing the acta in a public place), summarizes them (writing a letter), and then posts it online in his version of a news packet – his widely-read column.

It’s aggregation at work. A process Caelius practiced has now been refined to meet the standards of the digital age.

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Political Reporting

Posted by: | October 22, 2009 | No Comment |

Political reporting has always greatly altered the way people feel about critical topics. From the days when one journalist would follow Presidential candidates everywhere they went, to the first televised Presidential debates in 196o, reporting on politics has always served a pivotal purpose: to enlighten.

Today, all of the major cable networks spend the majority of their time covering politics. Each of the channels provides the same basic information in an effort to inform it’s audience, but they all spin their presentations and programming in an angle to best suit their audience. Viewers who want a conservatively-minded broadcast typically watch FOX NEWS. Liberal-minded television viewers probably prefer MSNBC.

It should be noted, however, that journalism with a slant is not new. That was also the case when political reporting was first used by newspapers in the earliest days of the use of correspondents.

Speaking of the old school days…

Mitchell Stephens’ textbook, “A History of News,” mentions Frederick Douglass as one of the first great political reporters in America. Douglass, known more for his work as an activist than for his journalistic exploits, was the political writer for William Lloyd Garrison’s “Liberator” in 1838.


                                                Frederick Douglass

…

ENDNOTE:

One point that was made during my reading of political reporters is that viewers should remember that they have opinions just like the rest of us. Perhaps thee best way to highlight this is the follwing link, which will take you to an article that I found amazing.

The article shows 143 different political reporters — who are supposedly presenting you with unbiased information — each of whom has donated to political campaigns since 2004. It’s pretty interesting and it’s relevant to the topic.

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Today’s front pages: what do they have to offer?

Posted by: | October 21, 2009 | No Comment |

For those of you who experienced the Newseum in Washington, D.C., you know about the newspapers in the front of the building.  As soon as you reach the Newseum, the front cover of different newspapers from across the country are on display.

The point of the museum doing this is to show how each paper talks about different subjects that affect that area.  Not every paper is going to say the same things unless it is an event or subject that affects everyone across the country or worldwide.

A newspaper printed on a certain date in one city will not have the same front page as another paper in another city the same day.  For example, today’s date, 9/21/09, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on regulation of taxi cab safety in the city of San Diego.

Three major newspapers from Europe reporting on different topics for same day

Three major newspapers from Europe reporting on different topics for same day

In a city that has more open space and more land, such as Lewiston, Idaho, would report on something different.  The Lewiston Tribune reported on planting trees across the state for their front page.  It just goes to show how different two national papers could be.

Just because most of the time papers report on different subjects does not mean that there could be a time where almost every major paper across the country or worldwide could report on the same thing.

A day that comes to mind would be 9/11/01.  For those who experienced the Newseum, one might remember the section dedicated to 9/11.  In this section, there is a part where many papers from across the world are hung up against the wall from this day, all reporting on the same thing.

Newspaper headlines that reported on this tragic event

Newspaper headlines that reported on this tragic event

Did people react differently to 9/11 on the West coast compared to New York City and the East coast?  How and why do people react to news differently?  It is all about where they live and what they interested in.  I am sure that most of America reacted the same to the 9/11 terror, but New York City was no doubt impacted the most.

Whether you live on the East coast or West coast, from the north or the south, or from anywhere different, whatever the subject is, the reader will be interested in what the front cover has to show.  It just goes to show how different people can be from different areas and how different their interests are.  This is how different communities see news differently from each other.

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The first newspaper in America

Posted by: | October 21, 2009 | No Comment |

On April 24, 1704, the “Boston News-Letter” made made its debut as the first continually published newspaper in North America. It was a one page sheet printed front and back and issued weekly.

News-Letter

A local bookseller and postmaster named John Campbell was the first publisher. The paper originally contained news mostly on Brittish news and politics due to the fact that most of the money for the paper came from the Brittish Government.

However, in 1722, Bartholomew Green gained control of the paper. Previously the printer of this periodical, he decided to focus more on local news.

Green died in 1732 and left the paper to his son, John Draper. Draper felt the need to be a better editor and publisher than those who came before him.

He incresed the size of the paper to four pages and included news from Boston, the surrounding colonies and from overseas.

Also, even at the earliest point in American newspapers, this newspaper included sensationalism. A story covering the death of Blackbeard the pirate off the coast Ocracoke Island ran in 1718.

capture of blackbeard

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ACTAvating public knowledge

Posted by: | October 21, 2009 | No Comment |

The difference making The Roman Empire better than all those who came before it, was how news travelled.  The Roman Empire through the use of the acta, started the idea of newspapers and was able to remain a strong empire for nearly 1000 years. 

Bust of Julius Caesar

Bust of Julius Caesar. desitin.no

The Acta had been around for nearly one hundred years before Julius Caesar came to rule.  Julius Caesar made the recordings, of both the senate and the people, available to both the senate and the people.  The news would be recorded and then copies would be made by hand and posted in areas of heavy traffic were the most people would find them. 

As we learned in Chapter 5 of Stephen’s History of News, after the acta was published and posted, people would copy it by hand.  They would take these copies and then sell them to those who were unable to travel to where the acta was, like in the case of Cicero in Asia Minor. 

The acta was not just political news but also news of the public including gladiator sports and news of marriages and deaths.  Because the acta covered such a wide array topics it relates heavily to the modern newspaper.    

While there was no doubt censorship was used by the government in what was provided to the public in the acta, the news seems to be covered thoroughly.  The majority of censorship seems to come from rulers after Julius Caesar, who did not share in his ideology of public information.

Sadly, no acta  survives to this day.  After the actas were displayed for all to see, they were stored in the public archives with other important information.  The destruction or demise of all this information is unknown and only fragments are remembered through letters and other writings which survived the period.

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“On Objectivity” – John Stuart Mill/Michael Schudson

Posted by: | October 21, 2009 | No Comment |

John Stuart Mill, one of the greatest advocates for freedom of speech and author of “On Liberty,” would disagree with objectivity in the news – he would advocate op-ed pieces and blogging.

Mill, who wrote “On Liberty” in 1859, like journalists, was concerned with finding the truth.  Mill, however, believed that conflicting opinions “shared the truth between them.”

John Stuart Mill (nndb.com)

John Stuart Mill (nndb.com)

Mill argued, “Truth in the great practical concerns of life, is so much a question of the reconciling and combining of opposites, that very few have minds sufficiently capacious and impartial to make the adjustment with an approach to correctness…only through diversity of opinion is there, in the existing state of human intellect, a chance of fair play to all sides of the truth.”

For Mill, truth can only be found through the reconciliation of opposing opinions.  Although Mill wrote about individual freedom of speech, the truth seeking qualities of his arguments could also apply to journalism.  Journalism students are taught to see through the tales and find the truth.  Mill would argue they are missing one key ingredient – students are also taught to leave opinion out of their writing.

The journalistic idea of objectivity is covering both sides of the story.  This gives opposing opinions a voice, and gets closer to the truth.  However, it is ultimately up to the news consumer to determine the whole truth.  The problem is that covering both sides of a story without analyzing the claims from either side can leave the news consumer with cognitive dissonance.

(Ramirez/cheatseekingmissles.com)

(Ramirez/cheatseekingmissles.com)

Journalism’s current obsession with objectivity is the basis of Michael Schudson’s book “Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers.”  Schudson maintains, “Journalists, as well as their critics, hold newspapers to a standard of objectivity.”  In his book, Schudson details journalism’s history and its morphing views of objectivity.

Michael Shudson (UCSD)

Michael Shudson (UCSD)

Discovering the News - Michael Schudson

Schudson concludes his book with, “Journalists, like other seekers, must learn to trust themselves and their fellows and the world enough to take everything in, while distrusting themselves and others and the appearances of the world enough not to be taken in by everything.”

Not being taken in by everything requires at least an opinion, if not knowledge of the truth.  Mill would require more opinion in news to get at the whole truth and Schudson asserts near the end of his book that there is a “simmering disaffection with objective reporting.”

Maybe history will repeat itself and journalism will return to pre-Jacksonian partisan news. Or, perhaps blogging and FOX news have already made the transition and the newspaper industry is just watching and waiting…

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Inspiration for sensation(alism)

Posted by: | October 21, 2009 | No Comment |

Journalists and Historians alike often attribute the rise of sensationalism to the war between Hearst and Pulitzer. For it was during this time in the late19th to early 20th centuries that newspaper editors were looking for ways to sell more papers. The story is classic: the elder Joseph Pulitzer makes something of himself by building the St. Louis Post-Dispatch into the dominant newspaper of that city; all the while William Randolph Hearst looks on as the young buck eager to learn a few lessons that can be applied to his newly acquired San Francisco Examiner. Until finally, both meet in New York where Pulitzer’s New York World and Hearst’s New York Journal  go head to head in an all out circulation battle that peaked from 1895-1898.

Courtesy of iml.jou.ufl.edu

Courtesy of iml.jou.ufl.edu

Ah yes, the first great sensationalistic newspapers in America, or were they?

In the late 1870’s and early 1880’s an Irish immigrant by the name of Richard Kyle Fox brought his journalistic talents to the United States and began writing for the foundering National Police Gazette, which he took over in lieu of back wages and borrowed heavily to keep afloat. According to Historian Elliot J. Gorn, Fox’s goal was to, ” …make his weekly America’s leading journal of sport, theater, romance, and scandal.” Hardly respectable or rather, newsworthy subjects to be published at that time.

Courtesy of Police Gazette

Courtesy of Police Gazette

As Gorn goes on to point out in “A Brief History of American Sports,”  “Young women seduced, scantily clad chorus girls, sexual revelations, horrible fires, train wrecks, vicious murders, immoralities of the high and mighty, hangings, and scandals of the stage-these were the stuff of the National Police Gazette. Subsequently, newsstands would not carry the tabloid and many anti-vice societies attempted to shut Fox down completely. Nevertheless, Fox’s publication managed to sell 150,000 copies a week! Quite an impressive feat considering the paper almost folded a couple of years prior.

It was the birth of American sensationalism.Wherever the lower, working-class men gathered to relax, Fox’s publication could be found at the center of the discussion. In defining sensationalism as being controversial, attention grabbing, or unusual, the Gazette hit it right on the head. This paper was targeted at an audience that Fox knew would be willing to pay for the out of the ordinary news. Despite being printed on bright pink pages, having lurid illustrations on it, and being associated with taboo stories, the Gazette received most of its success from sport, in particular boxing.

In the Paddy Ryan-Joe Goss fight in May of 1880, newspapers across the country gave little attention to the fight as the popularity in pugilism had been declining in recent years. Seizing upon this, Fox decided to put out a “fight” edition of the match. This edition focused on providing detailed accounts of the fight from ringside reporters, as well as vivid illustrations by a team of artists, culminating in an edition that, according to Elliot Gorn, “…took readers ringside as no publication ever had.” As a result, the Police Gazette presses ran for weeks cranking out 400,000 fight edition copies to satisfy the demand of sports fans nationwide. Fox continued on after this unprecedented fight to promote sports through his paper and reap the benefits of covering those fights in detail like no other publication could at the time.

In this example of Richard Kyle Fox’s Police Gazette, we see the birth of American sensationalism. Fox rebuilt the dying Gazette upon the foundations of scandal, romance, sex, and sport. By focusing in on sport in particular, Fox managed to sensationalize a particular part of the American population and media. He reported on the unusual and often controversial sport of boxing and capitalized in his success of giving the population those juicy stories it wanted to read. In addition to bringing the first hints of sensationalism to American newspapers, Fox–as Gorn argues and I agree–inspired Hearst and Pulitzer to see the value of sensationalism in selling newspapers.

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Objectivity: Then and Now

Posted by: | October 21, 2009 | No Comment |

Over the past century or so, objectivity has seen many distinctions due to the growth of technology and the increasingly demand of news across the world. This has led to major differences between objectivity in the early 20th Century to today.

According to Michael Schudson, objectivity means that a person’s statements about the world can be trusted if they are submitted to established rules deemed legitimate by  a professional community.  During the 1960s, objectivity became a major improvement in terms of delivering news then sensationalism. This is an example of objectivity with a random report from the Associated Press.

Then there is objectivity in today’s media landscape

Now that’s the news most Americans accustomed to everyday. News anchors expressing opinions and yelling back and forth at the opponent. Watching and reading objective news on television and newspapers are very boring nowadays. People want in-depth analysis, and opinion.

They also want some action added to the news such as shouting, and arguing with each anchor. How does cable networks such as Fox News and MSNBC draw viewers every night? Let just face it, objectivity is virtually non existent in today’s media world. Americans want more things then just the facts.

Objectivity in the 1920s is just reporting the news and trusting the means of the source. Today, its driven by analysis and opinion.

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The art of conversation

Posted by: | October 21, 2009 | No Comment |

It is no secret that as technology grows the importance of the spoken word declines.  Information that used to be exclusive to town criers can now be found in forms such as newspapers, magazines, and most recently, the internet. As the internet evolves, we are no longer simply faced with countless websites but blogs, twitter and numerous other social networking sites.  In all of this there remains one question:  What happened to good ol’ conversation?

In the seventeeth century, Catherine de Vivonne escaped the bustle of Louis XIII‘s court in her Parisian townhome.  In her famous chambre bleue de Vivonne began receiving guests, primarily writers.  In these gatherings, conversation became an art and so by the 1630’s the day of the salon had begun.

French salons served several purposes throughout the years, including being centers for the exchange of news. This is where the elite gathered to discuss current events as well as works of art. There was no television or internet to use for entertainment or news, so people talked. What people of today’s world may find the most astonishing is that simply talking was more than enough.

So what’s so great about conversation? What the existence, and success, of these salons proved is that human-to-human interaction is a valuable experience.  Women hosted these gatherings with the intent of providing a place for these interactions to take place and be meaningful.  Has the need for this experience just evaporated into thin air?  I would say no, the need has not evaporated but the convenience has.

It is now so much simpler to communicate via technology that face-to-face time is suffering.  News travels in an instant and even that’s too slow. What we are losing with this attitude, however, is invaluable. People need other people, and people need conversation. Take some time out of your day, tell someone something you heard on the radio or about the weather.  Just talk to someone, you may be surprised at how much more fulfilling that is than staring at a computer screen.

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A forgotten titanic tragedy

Posted by: | October 19, 2009 | No Comment |

Two notable shipwrecks took place in the 1910s, both of them in the Western Hemisphere. Two, the Titanic and the Lusitania, are embedded in folklore. The third, Empress of Ireland, is the deadliest maritime disaster in Canadian history but is largely forgotten.

from the Royal Alberta Museum

from the Royal Alberta Museum

The Empress of Ireland was built in 1906 by the Fairfield Shipbuilding Engineering Co. in a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city. The ship made its maiden voyage to North America that same year. With an overall capacity of 1,580, she could travel from the U.K. to North America in six days.

It took 14 minutes to sink in the St. Lawrence River on May 29, 1914 . It collided with a Norwegian ship at 2:00 a.m. local time, causing 1,012 deaths. More passengers died in this tragedy than in the Titanic disaster. News regarding the survivors reached both sides of the Atlantic.

taken by Dave Hobson

taken by Dave Hobson

A second tragedy, resulting from the shipwreck, is taking place in modern times. The ship lies in 130 feet of water, well within the reach of divers. Robert Ballard, the oceanographer who discovered the Titanic shipwreck, found that divers are disturbing what many see as a grave site.

Titanic has Hollywood and the Lusitania’s demise helped lead to U.S. involvement in World War I. The Empress of Ireland is part of a novel’s plotline, reflecting its place in shipwreck lore.

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Travel Writing

Posted by: | October 14, 2009 | No Comment |

Travel writing became popular in the early 20th century, although it has been around in some form since the invention of writing. It is a type of feature writing that often involves humor, personal views, and vivid descriptions. As a travel writer, you are able to express your views on places all around the world. Good travel writing is often associated with tourism or guidebooks.

Today’s travel writing is more ubiquitous than early pieces.  Today, there are websites like TravelReporters that let an ordinary user submit their writing. When travel writing first began, people would write about the places they visited and how they were received. For example, early travelogues by women included impressions of how they were received as a woman and as a foreigner. The travelogues of people often tell more about their culture than they do of the culture they are visiting.

Travel writing was important to early rulers when they desired knowledge of other lands. During the post classical era, trade and pilgrimage became major incentives to travel. People would document what they did on their journeys and who they met. People had a desire for reading about foreign lands and faraway places.

During the 20th century, the development of mass transit meant the explosion of travel writing. Mass travel helped develop tourism. With huge amounts of people visiting foreign places, the demand for guidebooks grew. Guidebooks offered advice on food, lodging, local sites and customs, and shopping.

To be a successful travel writer, there are some general guidelines to follow. Even if you are not a writer, you will probably appreciate reading articles that follow these guidelines.

  • Don’t use cliches.
  • Go easy on the adjectives. Don’t use huge descriptive words that you wouldn’t use in everyday language.
  • Don’t use the first-person. People don’t care what your reactions to a place are.
  • Be careful about mentioning religious or ethnic differences.
  • Don’t exclude people with the way that you write. Try not to use obscure language
  • Try to accentuate the positive aspects of a destination.
  • Look for the little details of a place, or the little-known treasures in a town.
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