Comm455/History of Journalism

Change is hard in any period and time. It means a different thing to each person. Many societies resist change because of the unknown tomorrow; many see it as a glimpse of light in the darkness of their lives, while many others see it as a threat to the stability of the only world they […]

In 1455, Johannes Gutenberg created something that changed his world forever and helped shape the society we live in today. Though many may already know this creation was the Gutenberg Bible and that his invention was movable type for printing presses, ask those same individuals to name another fact about Gutenberg’s life and they will likely […]

There’s nothing new about a coffee shop. Since their inception they have been a place to gather, exchange ideas, and indulge. A multipurpose space, used for business meetings, interviews, dates, and in the old times (think 1700s )­– news. A quick Google search highlights coffee’s roots and its journey from the Ethiopian forest to the […]

A media star is someone who is well known due to his or her regular appearances in the mass media. They are someone who engages with their audience while having some sort of influence and authoritative standpoint. When we think of media stars, we think of popular radio talk show hosts, television hosts, news reporters, […]

Information is constantly being passed from person to person. Whether it’s in a conversation, a text, a news article, a Facebook post, or even something as simple as a tweet, we are constantly sharing information with each other. This is not a new concept. Back in 351 b.c., this notion of passing information and news […]

We live in an age where we know what color dress stars like Angelina Jolie wore to a red carpet event five seconds after she steps out of the limo or what Duchess, Kate Middleton is saying in an interview after her engagement in a web article, an hour later.  The internet, television shows like […]

Today when you think about salons, you probably think about places people go to have their hair polished and styled for a price. However this is not the case for what salons were in the 17th and 18th centuries. Early French salons served as a sort of haven for exchanging and receiving information. Though salons were […]

“If it bleeds it leads” and in Vlado Taneski’s case, it bled profusely. Vlado Taneski was a Macedonian crime reporter who spent countless hours following a murderer who prayed on the elderly women of his town. According to The Guardian, Taneski reportedly followed a string of serial murders in the town of Tetovo. These murders included violent […]

Sports reporting on ESPN during the 1990s consisted of getting daily score updates, news, and gossip by predominantly white sportscasters. Although ESPN had few African American sportscasters, one changed the game of sports reporting and that man was Stuart Scott. Scott was born in Chicago, Illinois but grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He grew up […]

During the Civil War Era, tension grew between those who were pro-slavery, and those who were against slavery. After watching a slave being burned at the stake,  Elijah Lovejoy became an advocate for the abolition of slavery and published a religious newspaper called The St. Louis Observer. His editorials became very harsh towards slavery, which caused […]

Every night millions of Americans turn to their local news station to watch the evening news. According to Conan O’Brian though it seems all these stations say the same thing. ( video produced by TBS) Of course it is not really true that these news stations are saying the same thing, but rather they are […]