Comm455/History of Journalism

Benjamin Franklin, printed the first ethnic newspaper, Die Philadelphische Zeitung, in 1732. The Zeitung was the first German newspaper printed in North America. Unfortunately it failed before 1732 ended. Printing the Zeitung provided the German immigrants with a publication where they could access news easily through their own language. Nowadays there are still German newspapers […]

“Propaganda‘s  task is not to make an objective study of the truth; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly.” – Adolf Hitler, 1924 In electoral campaigns, Nazi propaganda probed voters’ needs, hopes, and fears.  Then they carefully tailored their themes, messages, and language to blue- and white- collar workers, housewives, youth, etc. […]

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 […]

When the 20th century arrived, Journalism enters the print syndication world.  Print syndication are articles, columns and comics are made available to newspapers, websites, and magazines. Print syndication often reprints  articles and publish them on paper and online with copyright consent. Newspaper companies like the Tribune Company, the New York Times, and The Telegraph Media […]

In the 3rd chapter of Discovering the News, Schudson discusses two types of journalism in the 1890’s that influenced the journalism standards we see today. These two types of journalism are “journalism as entertainment,” and “journalism as information.” Schudson starts out by asking two important questions about these two types of journalism. “What is it […]

Chapter Two of Michael Schudson‘s “Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers” (see picture of Schudson below), discusses the bitterness between William Randolph Hearst and Richard Harding Davis over a story in Cuba (1897) where three Cuban women on an American ship was  searched and stripped by male Spanish officials; Davis never states that the Cuban women were searched by men.  Source: Wikipedia      While, the Cuban women […]

Throughout the Pre-20th Century era, newspapers had a love affair covering wars, and the reporters often report the story without any concern from a highly ranked official. However, during wars like the French Revolution, they were censorship from officials in France. French journals and Gazettes could not publish their stories without a privilege from the […]

In chapter 9 of Mitchell Stephens’ “A History of News,” he writes about the development of newspaper editors in England during the 1600s. Editors organize a newspaper into having clarity and direction to the reader. Newspapers with clarity and direction are more credible than those lacking. One problem newspapers had in the 1600s was how […]