Comm455/History of Journalism

New York City in 1897 was the center of American journalism.  That center culminated namely between the two newspaper moguls, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Hearst and Pulitzer were consumed in a  constant media war fueled by sensationalism and reflected in yellow journalism.  Current events fell subject as feeders to the tabloid war.  One […]

We’ve all seen it. On telephone booths. In subway tunnels. Sprawled across street signs. Such a phenomenon seems almost inescapable. Since its explosion in the 1970s, the increasing popularity of graffiti as an art form has won commercial success for its artists and earned a legitimate presence in pop culture and the contemporary art world. […]

I haven’t quite figured out why people take so much interest in celebrities misfortunes. I’m guilty of it myself, I’m usually the first of my friends to know about celebrity D.U.I’s, divorces and deaths. But that’s not to say I don’t rejoice inside when I find out about a new celebrity baby or marriage. There […]

With social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, news and gossip can spread like wildfire. Sometimes, it moves a little TOO fast. Word of mouth has been one of the most popular forms of passing news along since language arrived with homo sapiens. People would gather to learn the news of the day/week/month/year. Without the written word, […]

The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s baby boy became a media sensation, quite possibly leading to the poorest outcome of all.

A D.C. area Starbucks’ customer got more than he bargained for when he took his little girl to use the bathroom. Family Sues Over Hidden Bathroom Camera Taking Pictures Of 5-Year-Old Girl In DC Starbucks | wusa9.com  WASHINGTON (WUSA) — A five year old girl is now terrified to use the restroom after discovering a […]

The media frenzy brought about by the recent Casey Anthony trial is nothing new. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was caught in the same sort of sensationalist scandal over 90 years ago.

Are we a depraved people for taken such an interest in stories of crime? Cynical people might think so but actually the reporting of crime in news has served four main purposes: Assist in the apprehension of the criminal Deter other potential criminals Clarify and reinforce lines of acceptable behavior Strengthen political bonds Though crimes […]

Picture retrieved from OliverAlex’s photostream and found by way of Creative Commons Since before newspapers were first began being made, crime has been reported. One of the earliest crime reports were written in cuneiform and on clay tablets. Today, the language and the medium may be different, but the draw of a crime report remains […]

Before OJ, before cable news, before the advent of tabloids and even before the Lindbergh kidnapping, there was the murder of Helen Jewett in 1836. Jewett was an upscale prostitute in New York City until her brutal murder in the early hours of April 10. The next day, New York’s best-selling Sun newspaper published the first account of the crime, including all of […]