Hilbert College

 History of Mass Communication:

History of Newspapers

2 November, 1999

"Have you noticed that life, real honest-to-goodness life, with murders and catastrophes and fabulous inheritances, happens, almost exclusively, in the newspaper." -Dennis Griffiths

Without doubt, the newspaper is the oldest form of communication. Newspapers are almost as old as the printing press itself. Newspapers originated in Europe in the late 1400s. During this time period, important news included voting, military successes, and royal births. As newspapers developed, the amount of information included in them developed (Griffiths, 1992). The first English newspaper was the London Gazette, published in 1665 (Wiles, 1957). Newspapers had a slow start in the Colonies due to the licenses required by Britain for printing (Silverman, 1964). After gaining independence from Britain, newspapers in the United States began to grow. In the late 1800s to mid-1900s, the "Golden Age" of news brought newspapers to a whole new audience (Douglas, 1999). Presently, the newspaper is a romantic and timeless form of mass media.

The earliest newspapers can be traced to England. In 1643, the Mercurius Aulicus was published. This work was the first collaborative newsbook and was also a forerunner to the modern newspaper (Raymond, 1996). Early British papers were published monthly or bi-weekly. An example of this type of paper is the first edition of the Weekly News from Italy, Germany, Hungaria, Bohemia, the Palatinate, France and the Low Countries published by Thomas Archer and Nicholas Bourne in 1641. Also, the London Gazette was published in this manner beginning in 1665. (A HREF="#bleyerw1">Bleyer, 1927). In the early 1700s, daily newspapers began to take formation, including the Daily Courant in 1702. Many small, short-lived papers were created as well, including the British Apollo, the Freethinker, the Prompter, the Female Spectator, and the World (Bond, 1957). These daily papers were the founders of the modern daily newspaper, which is now used as a form of mass communication to all people (Lake, 1984).

Newspaper journalism also developed in the American colonies during the late 1600s and early 1700s. In 1690, Benjamin Harris published the first and only issue of Publick Occurrences in Boston, Massachusetts (Silverman, 1964). This issue was a predecessor to newspaper journalism in the colonies. The British began to require printing licenses for publication in the colonies, and the Stamp Act restricted the sale of newspapers from 1765-1783. The newspapers became important outlets for colonists to express their ideas about the revolutionary movement. This uneasy period, lasting from 1766-1775, was aided by newspaper journalism. Prior to the start of the Revolution in 1775, newspapers played an important role in the thought processes of the people. Wartime, which lasted from 1775-1783, was especially good for newspaper production, and newspapers thrived during this conflict (Sloan, 1994). Newspaper journalism would play an even more important role in future American conflicts, including World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. These times of change led to a more modern, aggressive style of newspaper journalism.

In fact, during the late 1700s and the early 1800s, there came a shift in journalism practices towards the more modern style of paper. Because of President Jackson's inauguration, there came a great demand for Penny Papers- ones affordable to the average citizen. Americans were demanding "real" newspapers. The Industrial Revolution and the Civil War period also had a great impacts on American journalism. In 1835 the New York Herald came into publication, followed by the Tribune in 1841. During the 1840s, the Washington Globe and the New York Evening Post were first published. These papers each had their own unique, innovative style (Douglas, 1999). The demand for news- both papers and live reports- increases during wartime. The French and American Revolutions both had heavey impacts on journalism. The Civil War made papers a necessity. In France the newspaper has progressed for the Venice Gazette to the Amsterdam Coranto and the birth of papers in London (Stephens, 1988). The wars in Europe made progression in the field of newspapers in Britain. National issues often instigate advancement in the press, by both hindering and helping reporters (Tunstall, 1996).

Many people have had a profound influence on the history of the newspaper. One family, the Sulzbergers, were the proprietors of the famous New York Times, as were the Grahams of the Washington Post, and Ingersol, Singleton, and Chandler families of the Los Angeles Times. Each of these people had a role in establishing the press as a true business (Coleridge, 1994). E.W. Scripps is famous for combining the journalistic standards of Pulitzer with Hearst's profit-making skills to create the first chain of newspapers. He sold his papers for one penny each in small suburban towns, where the other private papers, purchased by subscription, were very expensive. His chain was and immediate success with the American public (Baldasty, 1999). Still today, one of the most famous names in the newspaper industry is William Randolph Hearst. From the beginning, Hearst knew that newspapers would be a successful business. He is famous for originating yellow journalsim, or fabricated and embellished stories in order to attract consumers' attention and to sell more papers than his competitors, especially Joseph Pulitzer, whose paper held high moral standards and ethics. Hearst eventually put Pulitzer out of business with his outlandish tales. Hearst's mudslinging even went so far as to help start the war with Spain, when he was quoted to have said to his photographer in Cuba, "You provide the pictures, I'll provide the war." Hearst was also a politician, and the movie Citizen Kane centers on his career in politics (Swanberg, 1961). After Pulitzer went out of business, he began to award the Pulitzer Prize for outstanding journalism. The Pulitzer Prize way oif journalism may be described as work done well and right the first time, with the purpose to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. keeps this dream of moral journalism alive today by continuing with the Pulitzer Prize (Pulitzer, 1998). Another famous family in journalism is the previously mentioned Sulzbergers. Adolph S. Ochs founded the New York Times, and his daughter married Arthur Hays Sulzberger in 1917. Sulzberger took over his father-in-law's job when he died. The Sulzberger family has upheld the strong position of the Ochs by passing the paper through their own generations (Jones, 1999). One of the most well-known newspaper journalists of this century is H. L. Mencken. Mencken's journalism career began early; he was only nineteen years old when his first story ran in the Baltimore Morning Herald. By 1905, he had obtained the position of managing editor of the Evening Herald (Mencken, 1994).

The history of the newspaper, traced from the earliest English papers and Benjamin Harris' Publick Occurrences, to the widely read papers in America today such as the New York Times and the endless list of others, proves the timelessness of the newspaper as a necessary form of mass communication. From the 1400s to the present "Golden Age", newspapers have affected the lives of people all over the world in many ways. They have functioned as watchdogs for political parties and public figures, and even been credited with starting wars. The history of America, and the history of the world, could never have been the same without the first form of mass communication- newspapers.

Bibliography:

Griffiths, Dennis. (1992) The Encyclopedia of the British Press. St. Martin's Press.

Wiles, R.M. (1957) Serial Publication in England before 1750. Cambridge University Press.

Silverman, Alan. (1964) The American Newspaper. Western Printing and Lithographing Co.

Douglas, George H. (1999) The Golden Age of the Newspaper. Greenwood Press.

Raymond, Joad. (1996) The Invention of the Newspaper, English Newsbooks 1641-1649. Clarendon Press.

Bleyer, William Grosvenor. (1927) Main Currents in the History of American Journalism. Riverside Press.

Bond, Richmond Pugh and Katherine Kirtley Weed. (1946) Studies of British Bewspapers and Periodicals. University of North Carolina Press at Chapel Hill.

Lake, Brian. (1984) British Newspapers: A History and Guide for Collectors. Sheppard Press.

Sloan, William and Julie Hedgepoth Williams. (1994) The Early American Press 1690-1783. Greenwood Press.

Stephens, Mitchell. (1988) A History of News: From the Drum to the Satellite. Viking Press.

Tunstall, Jeremy. (1996) Newspaper Power: The New National Press in Britain. Clarendon Press.

Coleridge, Nicholas. (1994) Paper Tigers. Birchland Press.

Baldasty, Gerald J. (1999) E.W. Scripps and the Business of Newspapers. University of Illinois Press.

Swanberg, W.A. (1961) Citizen Hearst. Charles Scribner's Press.

Pulitzer, Joseph Jr. (1998) Newspapers and Broadcasting in the Public Interest. Pulitzer Publishing company.

Jones, Alex S. and Susan E. Tifft. (1999) The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind the New York Times. Little, Brown and Company.

Mencken, H.L. (1994) Thirty-Five Years of Newspaper Work. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Complete Bibliography online at: 10141999cldich.html.