978-1319058517 Chapter 8

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PART 3
Words and Pictures
Print media, which provide a historical record and enable individualism, dominated the nineteenth
century. In the twentieth century, the newspaper, magazine, and book industries adapted as new media—
music, radio, and television—arose. Now, in the twenty-first century, print media have continued to
transform for the online digital media environment and new modes of access. Large questions remain
regarding the viability of print media business models and the consequences of digital access to
previously only hard-copy print media.
Chapter 8
Newspapers: The Rise and Decline of Modern Journalism
In this chapter, we examine the cultural, social, and economic impact of newspapers. We will:
Trace the history of newspapers through a number of influential periods and styles
Explore the early political-commercial press, the penny press, and yellow journalism
Examine the modern era through the influence of the New York Times and journalism’s embrace of
objectivity
Look at interpretive journalism in the 1920s and 1930s and the revival of literary journalism in the
1960s
Review issues of newspaper ownership, new technologies, citizen journalism, declining revenue, and
the crucial role of newspapers in our democracy
Preview Story:
Newspaper journalism literally took center stage at the 2016 Academy Awards when the movie Spotlight
won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. The film has renewed public attention on the
important mission of the press to hold people in power accountable. Spotlight also distinguished itself for
celebrating collaborative journalism that investigates institutional failure and dysfunction rather than
dramatizing a single reporter or portraying a complex social issue through the frame of personal problems
that demand individual remedies. Sadly, the kind of expensive and time-consuming journalsm portrayed
in Spotlight is the exception rather than the rule.
I. The Evolution of American Newspapers
A. Colonial Newspapers and the Partisan Press.
B. The Penny Press Era: Newspapers Become Mass Media.
1. Day and the New York Sun.
3. Changing Economics and the Founding of the Associated Press.
C. The Age of Yellow Journalism: Sensationalism and Investigation.
1. Pulitzer and the New York World.
2. Hearst and the New York Journal.
II. Competing Models of Modern Print Journalism
A. “Objectivity” in Modern Journalism.
1. Ochs and the New York Times.
2. “Just the Facts, Please.”
B. Interpretive Journalism.
1. The Promise of Interpretive Journalism.
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1. Journalism as an Art Form.
1. USA Today Colors the Print Landscape.
2. Online Journalism Redefines News.
III. The Business and Ownership of Newspapers
A. Consensus versus Conflict: Newspapers Play Different Roles.
B. Newspapers Target Specific Readers.
2. Spanish-Language Newspapers.
4. Native American Newspapers.
5. The Underground Press.
C. Newspaper Operations.
1. News and Editorial Responsibilities.
2. Wire Services and Feature Syndication.
D. Newspaper Ownership: Chains Lose Their Grip.
E. Joint Operating Agreements Combat Declining Competition.
IV. Challenges Facing Newspapers Today
A. Readership Declines in the United States.
B. Going Local: How Small and Campus Papers Retain Readers.
C. Blogs Challenge Newspapers’ Authority Online.
D. Convergence: Newspapers Struggle in the Move to Digital.
E. New Models for Journalism.
F. Alternative Voices.
V. Newspapers and Democracy
Media Literacy and the Critical Process: Covering the News Media Business
Case Study: Alternative Journalism: Dorothy Day and I. F. Stone
Digital Job Outlook: Media Professionals Speak about Jobs in the Newspaper Industry
LECTURE IDEAS
Preview Story
If the journalism portrayed in Spotlight is to thrive, it will take more than the underwriting of a
I. The Evolution of American Newspapers
Retrace the evolution of newspaper writing. Compare especially the story model of journalism (as
practiced by the Hearst and Pulitzer papers) with the information model (as practiced by Ochs).
Discuss the advantages and limitations of each model. Explain the economic motives behind each
story style. Explore how relevant these distinctions are today.
Chart the developmental, entrepreneurial, and mass medium stages of newspapers.
Compare and contrast how William Randolph Hearst and Rupert Murdoch built their media
empires.
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William Randolph Hearst used his newspaper to further his political career: He served two terms in
Congress and was a presidential candidate in 1904. He is also said to have helped start the Spanish-
American War just to have a good story to cover. Hearst published exaggerated accounts of
atrocities suffered by Cubans at the hands of the Spanish. One of the newspaper’s artists was sent
to Cuba, but he found that the situation there was peaceful and wanted to return home. Hearst
reportedly cabled him: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” Orson Welles’s Citizen
Kane was modeled after Hearst’s life.
II. Competing Models of Modern Print Journalism
The online magazine Salon (http://www.salon.com) was founded in 1995 by five former reporters
from the San Francisco Examiner who believed that the newspaper had lost its spark. Deciding to
build an audience around talented writers and interesting content, Salon editor David Talbot (now
chair of Salon) told the New Republic in May 1997 that the idea behind Salon “is to emulate not the
The Online Journalism Awards were launched in 2000 by the Online News Association in
conjunction with the University of Miami’s School of Communication to honor excellence in
online journalism around the world. Past winners for the General Excellence Award include
MSNBC.com, nytimes.com, spokesman.com, ELPAIS.com, CNN.com, and ProPublica.org. The
categories for the Online Journalism Awards have expanded as digital journalism has become more
innovative and varied.
III. The Business and Ownership of Newspapers
In France, newspapers purposefully occupy specific places along the political spectrum. Le Monde is
support for their own values, while being fully conscious that another point of view is represented in
an opposing paper.
Politically alternative newspapers have a long history in the United States. In the early twentieth
century, the country’s largest-circulation weekly newspaper was Appeal to Reason, a socialist
paper. Circulation peaked at more than 760,000 copies in 1913, and its readers were largely among
the working class and immigrants. During World War I, though, the government suppressed—
sometimes violently—leftist newspapers. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, another
alternative paper—the Daily Worker, a communist journal—saw its circulation climb to 100,000.
The communist witch-hunts of the 1940s and 1950s later devastated this newspaper’s circulation.
The Daily Worker became a weekly in the 1950s, and after a series of name changes it became the
People’s Daily World in 1986 and then the People’s Weekly World in 1990, when the newspaper had
a circulation of about 62,000. In 2010, the paper ended print circulation and became an online-only
daily publication, renamed People’s World.
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an approach that is indeed different from most middle-of-the-road newspapers, including a focus on
city issues, opinionated debates, a clear political perspective, and investigative reports. The
advertising industry also discovered that alternative-press readers fall in the eighteen- to-forty-nine
age bracket, are generally college educated, and earn more than $50,000 a year.
Circulation of alternative newsweeklies had grown to seven million by 1999. Circulation remained
relatively flat—between seven million and eight million—through 2005. The combined circulation of
the top twenty alternative newsweeklies declined by about 14 percent in 2011, another 8 percent in
2012, 6 percent in 2013, and 9 percent more in 2014. In that year, the top twenty alternative
newsweeklies had a circulation of fewer than 1.5 million readers. The adoption of digital, social, and
mobile platforms offers hope for these publications to rebuild their readership.
Solo journalism (also called “sojo” or “backpack” journalism) is an increasing trend in reporting.
Sojos are journalists who perform single-handedly the combined functions of a journalist,
photojournalist, videographer/editor, and blogger. Most often working in field locations, sojos
IV. Challenges Facing Newspapers Today
Trends in print newspapers:
Layoffs in newsrooms are more prevalent.
Print circulation is dwindling.
Ad sales are flat or declining (although Internet ad sales are growing).
posting blog items, adding video journalism to the mix, and making audio slide shows.
Some interesting quotes about future trends of print from leading U.S. newspaper editors:
“We will stop printing the New York Times sometime in the future, date TBD,” said Arthur
Sulzberger Jr., the paper’s publisher and chair of the New York Times Company, at a conference in
2010. A few weeks after the above comment, Bill Keller, then executive editor of the New York
2009. (The clip, at http://www.cc.com/video-clips/aamf21/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-end-
times, is just over five minutes long.)
“No trucks, no trees,” said former Boston Globe publisher Ben Taylor.
“Even though more and more of our readers are online, they’re not online all day. If they’re in wall-
business.html.)
In September 2010, the Huffington Post “poached” two traditional journalists, Peter Goodman
(formerly of the New York Times) and Howard Fineman (formerly of Newsweek), to be editors on
the site. Arianna Huffington, the site’s cofounder, stated that the Huffington Post always intended to
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journalists see an online platform as an opportunity to have more freedom with their writing and
cultivate a personal identity. Peter Goodman said in an interview about his move: “For me it’s a
chance to write with a point of view. . . . It’s sort of the age of the columnist. With the
dysfunctional political system, old conventional notions of fairness make it hard to tell readers
directly what’s going on. This is a chance for me to explore solutions in my economic reporting.”
(See Howard Kurtz, “Huffington Snags N.Y. Times Star,” Media Notes, Washington Post,
September 21, 2010. See also Jeremy Peters and Brian Stelter, “Pundit Leaves Newsweek for
Not everyone wanted to be anonymous, though; Daniel Defoe was a famous pamphleteer. Hawkers
distributed the pamphlets in streets and at marketplaces by shouting about the contents in the latest
pamphlet. Like blogs today, pamphlets were more conversational than the newspapers of the day. A
pamphlet would be distributed in the morning, and by the afternoon there would be another pamphlet
that offered a response.
eight U.S. attorneys.
Some mainstream journalists have blamed blogs for lowering journalistic standards. The
more than one source to verify a story.
Meanwhile, bloggers often rely on anonymous sources, can post news items immediately, keep
stories alive longer than a newspaper, and do not have to worry about paying staff or earning
Crog is a shorthand term for “carefully researched weblog.” Although these sites tend to look like
blogs, they take a more analytical, serious approach. Today, there are thousands of high-quality
crogs covering nearly every public issue, and because the sites are also rich in hyperlinks, a reader
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can often delve into primary sources. As such, crogs have become of great value to journalists and
In June 2010, News Corp. put two more of its newspapers, the Times of London and the Sunday
Times, behind a paywall (following in the Wall Street Journal’s footsteps). The company reported
in November 2010 that the new Times and Sunday Times sites and the iPad app attracted more than
it would be, but its subscriptions have leveled off since that initial success, with less growth than
needed to make up for drops in advertising and print circulation. The paywall move has been
profitable and has become an accepted model in the online newspaper business, but the future of
this structure remains unclear. Digital revenue at the Times was up to $400 million in 2015, and the
paper announced a goal of doubling that number by 2020. (See the October 7, 2015, Times memo
of 2015, the New York Times had more than one million digital subscribers and had collaborated
with Google to create NYT VR (http://nytimes.com/VR), a virtual reality storytelling tool. (See the
graphic “A History of NYTimes.com” at http://www.nytco.com/20-years-history-of-nytimes).
V. Newspapers and Democracy
Critics of conservative cable channel Fox News have long complained of its strong ties to
conservative and Republican politicians. This criticism increased in August 2010 when it was
revealed that News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, had donated $1 million to the
Republican Governors Association (see http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/17/fox-news-
takes-heat-for-news-corporations-gop-donation/). Although this donation is the most egregious
example to date of an organization claiming to hold public officials accountable while giving
money to their campaigns, it is far from the only example. Sheila Krumholz, executive director of
the Center for Responsive Politics, said: “This is one piece of the puzzle that the public should
following list reflects only the 2010 election cycle through August, well before the midterm elections:
News America Inc. (a subsidiary of News Corp.) made additional donations to both Republicans
and Democrats, including $50,000 to the Democratic Attorneys General Association and $65,000 to
the Republican State Leadership Committee.
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$64,000 to Republican candidates, plus almost $50,000 more to Republican- and Democratic-
affiliated PACs.
Disney (parent company of ABC) gave $110,500 to Democratic candidates and $95,000 to
Republicans through its PAC, plus almost $70,000 for various political groups for both parties.
This pattern continued in the 2012 election cycle. According to data collected by Opensecrets.org,
Comcast donated $206,056 to Barack Obama’s campaign and $20,500 to Mitt Romney’s. CBS’s
political action committee (PAC) donated $38,000 to House Republicans and $11,000 to Senate
Republicans. Disney CEO Bob Iger donated $30,800 to the DNC Services Corporation, $25,000 to
the Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee, and $10,000 to Disney’s own PAC. Time Warner
gave $10,750 to Romney, and Rupert Murdoch gave $25,000 to the National Republican
Congressional Committee.
The 2011 phone-hacking scandal in Britain only intensified these concerns regarding News Corp.’s
influence and cozy relationship with politicians in Britain and in the United States.
MEDIA LITERACY DISCUSSIONS AND EXERCISES
NEWSPAPERS AND DEMOCRACY
What is the role of a newspaper? If journalism is supposed to be important to democracy, how much do
students learn from newspapers about the decisions that affect their everyday life? Is there something
missing in the local newspaper(s) that students in class would want to know more about so as to be more
active citizens in a democracy?
At the end of 2015, Margaret Sullivan, the “public editor” of the New York Times, wrote two columns
about the challenges of local investigative reporting. Students can read and react to her assessment. (See
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/public-editor/margaret-sullivan-new-york-times-public-editor.html
and http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/public-editor/keep-the-flame-lit-for-investigative-
journalism.html.)
NEWSPAPER ANALYSIS
In the Newspaper section, I like to bring in as wide a range of papers as possible (alternative presses, USA
Today, foreign newspapers, etc.) and have the students pass them around and note the similarities and
differences in relation to the newspaper chapter.
—Developed by Karen Pitcher, University of Iowa
COVERING INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The purpose of this Critical Process exercise is to sharpen your analytical approach to news. Work with a
partner or in a small group. Over a period of three weekdays, study the New York Times, USA Today, and
one local daily paper. Devise a chart and a descriptive scheme so that you can compare how each of the
three papers covers international news. You should consider international news to be any news story that
is predominantly about another country or about another nation’s relationship with the United States.
Exclude the sports section of the papers. Follow these steps as you work on your project:
1. Description. Count the total number of international news stories in each paper. Which foreign
cities are covered? Which countries? What are the subjects of these stories (civil wars, anti-
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other words, what kind of issue or event makes another country newsworthy? Do not try to
3. Interpretation. Write a two- or three-paragraph critical interpretation of your findings. What does
your analysis mean? Why do some countries appear more frequently than others? Why do certain
kinds of stories seem to get featured?
4. Evaluation. Discuss the limitations of your study. Which paper seemed to do the best job of
covering the rest of the world? Why? Do you think newspapers give us enough information about
other people’s cultures and experiences?
5. Engagement. Either individually or with a group of students, write a letter or e-mail to your local
editor. Report your findings. In the note, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the local coverage
of international news and other cultures. Mention what the paper does well in this area, and suggest
what the paper might do better. What kind of response did you get?
THE SWEETER EXPERIENCE: PRINT VERSUS ONLINE NEWSPAPERS
Pre-Exercise Questions: New Yorker media critic Jon Katz once wrote: “There’s almost no media
experience sweeter . . . than poring over a good newspaper. In the quiet morning, with a cup of coffee—so
long as you haven’t turned on the TV, listened to the radio, or checked in online—it’s as comfortable and
personal as information gets.” How do you feel about the experience of reading a print newspaper? How
do you feel about the experience of reading a newspaper online?
1. Description. Look at the same day of the print and Web versions of a chosen newspaper. Describe
the content, style, organization, advertisements, and experience of reading both types of
newspapers.
2. Analysis. Is the Web version organized in a similar way, with the same section topics? Are the
stories the same, and are they edited in the same way? Does either version offer unique elements
that couldn’t be duplicated in the other format? Which version is more interesting or easier to read?
Is either version more information-based or more interpretive?
3. Interpretation. Does the Web version of the newspaper duplicate the print content and reading
experience? (This duplication is called shovel-casting.) How does the medium (print vs. computer-
based) affect the design, content, style, and reading experience of the newspaper? Why do we
5. Engagement. Try to make it your habit to read a newspaper every day. Experiment with a range of
different papers and formats. After a while, increase your reading load by reading both a
mainstream newspaper and an alternative news Web site (i.e., The Weekly Standard, Common
Dreams, Media Channel, or AlterNet) every day. You’ll be amazed at how much you’ll have to talk
about and how much more engaged you are with the world.
Options: Students can cover several different newspapers in groups or individually. As a discussion, this
exercise can be done in a computer lab, with a live projection of a Web newspaper (if equipment is
available). Alternatively, a printout of Web newspaper pages could serve to illustrate the comparison in
the discussion.
THE EVOLUTION OF JOURNALISM
As Media & Culture’s Chapter 8 explains, today’s journalism is quite different from the journalism of the
past. In their history, newspapers have reached extremes, from overtly partisan to superficially neutral and
from outlandishly sensational to matter-of-fact reporting. Analyze what happened along the way in the
Critical Process exercise.
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2. Analysis. Divide the class into groups of two to review some of the highlights in the evolution of
3. Interpretation. Come up with some appropriate headlines for each era for a major news story. Be as
4. Evaluation. Do we still live with the legacy of previous eras of journalism? Do we still see partisan
politics in newspapers? Human interest stories? Investigative journalism? The inverted pyramid
—Developed by Matthew Smith, Wittenberg University
TRACKING RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY: A SEMESTER-
LONG CRITICAL PROCESS EXERCISE AND PAPER
In this exercise students discover the most recent developments in the industry, and they become familiar
with industry trade sources. The paper they produce is due in sections, which correspond with the steps in
the Critical Process.
1. Description. Read industry trade sources to get a sense of the main issues affecting the newspaper
industry. Look at the Web sites of industry trade associations and professional societies. (Links to
Web sites of some industry trade sources are given in the Classroom Media Sources below.) Take
notes on topics that have multiple stories or mentions in the current year. What issues or
developments in the industry have received a lot of recent attention, discussion, or commentary in
industry sources? (Focus only on information from the current year—and only from trade sources.)
2. Analysis. Look for one development or pattern that has received significant attention on trade sites
3. Interpretation. What does the trend mean for the state of the industry? Is it evolving? How? What
does it tell you about media in general at the current time? What might it say about our culture or our
society? Can your information help us interpret the role of the industry in our lives? Write up your
4. Evaluation. Is the trend “good” or “bad?” For the industry? society? culture? democracy? us? What
do you think might happen in the future?
5. Engagement. Are there any actions you can take (related to your trend and the industry)? Possibilities
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Note: This exercise works well if each step of the Critical Process is due two weeks after the prior step is
due. Limiting students to only trade sources and only information from the current year helps keep them
on track. Your institution's librarians should be able to provide students with information on how to
access industry trade sources.
CLASSROOM MEDIA RESOURCES
LAUNCHPAD FOR MEDIA & CULTURE: http://www.macmillanhighered.com/mediaculture11e
Investigative Journalism On Screen: All the President’s Men (1976, 1:56 minutes) A brief clip from the
1976 film All the President’s Men explores the investigative journalism conducted by Bob Woodward
and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate scandal.
Newspapers and the Internet: Convergence (2009, 4:06 minutes). This video discusses some of the ways
newspapers and journalists are adapting to online delivery of news. Featuring Richard Campbell, John
and investigative reporting.
VIDEOS/DVDS/CDS
All the President’s Men (1976, 135 minutes). Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Washington Post
investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who uncovered the shady Nixon affairs of
Watergate.
The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords (1998, 86 minutes). The first film to chronicle the history of the
black press, with coverage from 1827 through the 1960s. Distributed by California Newsreel,
877-811-7495; http://newsreel.org.
Citizen Kane (1941, 119 minutes). The story of a publishing magnate based on the life of newspaper
publisher William Randolph Hearst. Although critics excoriated this film in 1941, it was eventually
heralded as one of the century’s best films. The scene we like to show is the one, occurring in
Bernstein’s memory, where Kane woos the staff of the Chronicle (aka the New York World) over to
questions about the nature of American news media. Includes interviews with Ralph Nader, Victor
Navasky, and Ben Bagdikian. Distributed by New Day Films, 888-367-9154;
http://www.newday.com.
WEB SITES
American Press Institute: https://www.americanpressinstitute.org
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Village Voice: http://www.villagevoice.com
World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers: http://www.wan-ifra.org
BLOGS
Altercation (Eric Alterman): http://www.thenation.com/blogs/eric-alterman
BuzzMachine (Jeff Jarvis): http://www.buzzmachine.com
The Dish (Andrew Sullivan): http://dish.andrewsullivan.com
InstaPundit.com (Glenn Reynolds): http://pjmedia.com/instapundit
JimRomenesko.com: http://jimromenesko.com
MediaWire (Poynter Institute Online): http://www.poynter.org/news/
PressThink (Jay Rosen): http://pressthink.org
Talking Points Memo (TPM) (Josh Marshall): http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com
FURTHER READING
Carey, James W. “The Press and the Public Discourse.” Kettering Review (Winter 1992): 9–22.
Danna, Sammy. “The Rise of Radio News” and “The Press-Radio War.” American Broadcasting. Ed.
Lawrence W. Lichty and Malachi C. Topping. New York: Hastings House, 1975, 338–350.
Emery, Michael, Edwin Emery, and Nancy L. Roberts. The Press and America: An Interpretive History of
the Mass Media. 9th ed. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.
Glasser, Theodore L., ed. The Idea of Public Journalism. New York: Guilford, 1999.
Hallock, Steven M. The Press March to War: Newspapers Set the Stage for Military Intervention in Post-
World War II America. New York: Peter Lang, 2012.
Lippmann, Walter. Liberty and the News. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920.
Mnookin, Seth. Hard News: The Scandals at the New York Times and Their Meaning for American
Media. New York: Random House, 2004.
Mott, Frank Luther. American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States, 1690–1960. 3rd
ed. New York: Macmillan, 1962.
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Riley, Sam G. The American Newspaper Columnist. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998.
Schudson, Michael. Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers. New York: Basic,
1978.
———. The Power of News. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
———. The Sociology of News. New York: Norton, 2012.
Serrin, Judith, and William Serrin, eds. Muckraking! The Journalism That Changed America. New York:

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