Historical development of Mass Media

Newspapers
Corantos was a one page news sheet printed in Holland in 1620. This paper was imported in
England to meet the public demand for information. It was printed once or twice a week.
In 1665, Oxford Gazette (which later changed to London Gazette) was founded. It was
published twice a week.
In 1704, Boston News-Letter was founded by John Campbell and survived until the
Revolution. It was dull and expensive but received subsidies which meant control from the
government and by 1721, Boston had 3 newspapers.
Penny press (one-cent newspapers) emerged in the 19th century as New York became a center
of culture, commerce, and politics. The first paper was New York Sun by Benjamin Day. This
paper had a large readership, contained police and court reports, crime stories, entertainment
and human interest stories. There were other penny press papers as well.

The Associated Press: With the invention of the telegraph in 1844, American newspapers
started to take advantage of the new technology. By 1848, 6 newspapers had joined together
to use the telegraph to pool their news-gathering resources.

Yellow Journalism: There was an era where news was sensational. Reporting was on crime,
sex, and disaster news. This was due to the industrialization, mechanization and urbanization,
which brought about the rise of city, improved transportation and communication, education
and political unrest.

Joseph Pulitzer was considered to be one of the best newspaper editors of his time. He
believed in accuracy, an aggressive and crusading editorial policy and good news judgment.
He reminded reporters to look for both the significant news and the original, distinctive,
dramatic, romantic, thrilling, unique, curious, quaint, humorous, odd, apt to be talked about
news. He was constantly crusading for just causes.
 2.1.1 Biases and Problems/Criticism
1. Blaming the messenger: It’s human nature to blame the messenger for bad tidings. By
publishing issues such as riots or other bad events, the press is blamed for implanting
the ideas elsewhere.
2. Watchdog function: (for the government) Keeping the citizens informed about the
government can put the press and the government in an adversarial relationship, at
least some of the time. When the press reports on activities that do not reflect
favorably on the government and its leaders, it often receives a great deal of criticism
from the government.
3. Bad news only myth: (from the misconception that only bad news sells the
newspapers). The paper carries both good and bad news but readers ignore the good
news. What is good to one person maybe bad to another one. e.g. weather reports.
4. Myth of media truth: (the misconception that if it appears on print then it’s the truth).
At times the media makes mistakes and when they do, people are bitterly critical.
5. Biases: Good journalists try to keep their biases out of their stories and present all
sides of the story fairly, objectively and accurately. But everyone is biased both the
news people and the readers. Cultural bias is also an area where journalists strive to be
sensitive. Journalists are trained to be more aware of cultural diversity and emphasis is
placed on the need to keep the news column and airwaves politically correct.

Loss of competition
There has been a huge decline in competition due to loss of competing papers and
concentration of ownership.
JOA- Joint Operating Agreement – where a failing paper merges most aspects of its
business with a successful local competitor as long as their editorial and reporting
operations remain separate. It’s better to have two more or less independent papers
than to allow one to close.

Editorial diversity allows a multiple flow from different voices and people are best
served by a number of antagonistic voices.
Concentration of ownership makes journalism to reflect the partisan interests of the
owners and advertisers rather than the diverse interests of the community.
Ownership is also a concern especially when the few owners also own other types of
media outlets and non-media companies. It raises the questions:
- Will the different media holding speak with one corporate voice?
- Will they speak objectively?
 Will they cover at all the doings of their non-media corporations?
Conglomeration: With conglomeration, increased pressure on newspapers to turn a
profit, it has led to the following:
- Hyper-commercialism such as selling ad space on the front pages and affixing
removable sticker ads to the front pages.
- Erasure of the distinction between ads and news: barrier between newspaper’s editorial
and advertising missions. The policy that businesspeople take part in the selection of
the news makes journalists become questionable.

- Loss of journalism: Editors and staff feeling powerless and isolated. The pressure on
journalists is whether they will have to think about journalism or financial aspects.
Papers lay-off staff and hiring young and less experienced reporters. They are focused
on profit margins and this is a distraction to the editors.

Convergence with the internet

Especially with young people who are moving from the print to electronic news
media. The internet and World Wide Web provide readers with more information and
more depth and at greater speeds than the traditional newspapers. It also empowers
readers to control and interact with the news, even becoming their own editor’s in
chief. This has led the newspapers to converge with the internet.
The newspaper industry recognizes that it must accept economic losses while it builds
online readers trust, acceptance, regular and frequent use. They do these by:
- Offering local papers online and searchable avenues to get any information on the
local subjects.
- Having message boards and chat groups that deal with important issues.
Community publishing.
- Delivering downloadable newspaper prints as they look on print on home and office
computers. These deal with late deliveries and one can access the paper worldwide.
For publishers, newsprint and delivery costs decline.
Space in the internet is infinite, therefore journalists can write more thoughtful
pieces.
Issues of online success include:
- If people will read the paper online. Is news new if it’s online or when it’s on paper?
- How to earn income with the web? Charging online editions, advertising space.
- How to measure circulation? Do you add the online readership to the hard-copy
readership? And if so, what does this mean in advertising?
Changes in newspaper readership
The young don’t read the paper as much as the old. How should the paper lure the
young readers? Should the papers give the readers what they SHOULD want or what
they DO want? Papers are dealing with this not only by adding sections for the young
readers but also by having these sections written by young people. This means more of
soft news than hard news.
Newspaper and Media Literacy
The softening of newspapers raises a potential media literacy issue. The media literate
person has an obligation to be aware of the impact of newspapers have on individuals
and society and to understand how the text of newspapers offers insight into
contemporary culture.
- Are we getting what we asked for?
- What do we as people and as individuals want from newspapers?
- Do we understand the role the newspapers play in our society?
- Are we fully aware of how newspapers help shape our understanding of ourselves and
our world?
Newspapers tell readers what is significant and meaningful through their placement of
stories in and on their pages. This is an important aspect in media literacy for it shows
the power the newspapers have in influencing the public.
A media literate newspaper reader should be able to know about layout decisions, use
of photos, size, color, wording of headlines, etc.