JMC 101: Media and Society PDF

JMC 101: Media and Society Reading #1: Introduction Civilizations rise and fall on the crests of great revolutions in communication, brought on by new technologies and limited only by human imagination. 1) Understanding History o History is an active investigation of what has ha...

JMC 101: Media and Society Reading #1: Introduction Civilizations rise and fall on the crests of great revolutions in communication, brought on by new technologies and limited only by human imagination. 1) Understanding History o History is an active investigation of what has happened to us and what we can learn from the past. o The meaning of the word history comes from the Greek word Historia meaning “inquiry knowledge acquired by investigation” o Historical perspectives may change as new facts emerge from research, or as historians use new tools, or as modern perspectives change. 2) Motivations for Historians o To remember and honor history’s heroes and to learn the lessons of history o Herodotus said he wrote The History “in hope of preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and the Barbarians from losing their due need of glory. o Thucydides hoped “The History of the Peloponnesian War” would be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future. o Heroic history can help form a basis for cultural or regional pride, or provide “the inspiration for aspiration.” Yet it can produce dangerous myths, leading to cultural isolation or extremes of self-righteousness. o One idea about history which comes from George Santayana is “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” 3) Can History be Objective? o Historiography involves the extent to which cultural and personal allegiances can or should be separated from narrative history. o Thomas Macaulay’s idea about historical accuracy was to be sweeping and including. He wrote that history is incomplete if it only involves palace intrigues and great battles. o Lord Acton “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This idea comes from an exchange with a colleague about the doctrine of papal  infallibility. Acton believed great men should be held up to an even higher standard under suspicion that they had become corrupted by power. o Historian Howard Zinn said a people history describes the lives of the powerless as well as the powerful while rejecting, the myth-making heroics that can obscure the immorality of the powerful. 4) Whig History and Other Fallacies o Throughout history historians have begun to take sides, Herbert Butterfield objected to the way historians would “write on the side Protestants and Whigs, to praise revolutions, provided they have been successful, to emphasize certain principles of progress in the past, and to produce a story which is the ratification if not the glorification of the present.” This is called Whig history o The historians fallacy: we assume that people in the past had the knowledge that we have today, which can lead to unwarranted conclusions about cause and effect. o Another kind of fallacy involves cultural restrictions on historians. Women and minorities were rarely taken seriously as historians 5) The Study of Communication History o Critical perspectives of the news business did begin appearing in the twentieth century, as part of the progressive age. o The exclusive focus on American journalism, rather than international communication, was typical of the times. 6) Parochialism in Communication History o If we separate history we miss some of the overlapping effects of the technological revolutions that are having a profound impact on life in the twenty- first century. 7) Communication and the History of Technology o The historical study of technology and culture involves questions about the creation, diffusion, and social impacts of tools and techniques to extend human power for agriculture, communication, energy, transportation, warfare, and other fields. o Technological progress was the primary factor driving civilization, according to some early anthropologists, while others have seen the use of energy or the accumulation of information as central to cultural development o Harold Innis an Marshall McLuhan ▪ Innis had the idea that civilizations using durable media tended to be oriented toward time and religious orthodoxy while on the other hand, cultures with flexible media were oriented toward control of space and secular approach to life.  ▪ The concepts of time and space reflect the significance of media to civilization. Media that emphasize time are durable in character such as parchment, clay, and stone. Media that emphasize space are less durable and light in character such as paper. ▪ The qualities of media flexibility and durability may be important elements in the way a civilization is organized. ▪ The kind of communication media-print, imaging, broadcasting, or computing has a strong influence not only on the message itself, but also on the type of thinking and the development of the culture creating the messages. o Determinists see technologies as path-dependent, with inevitable changes and consequently predictable impacts on society. o Social constructionists see a stronger influence for economics, politics, and culture that controls technological development. o Marshall McLuhan said we need to anticipate the process of social change that communication technologies generate. o Technological determinism was probably best articulated by historian Charles Beard who said “technology marches in seven-league boots from one ruthless, revolutionary conquest to another, tearing down old factories and industries, flinging up new processes with terrifying rapidity. o The global sharing of semi-skilled information work has brought the world close but has also destabilized employment in banking, news, entertainment, and other areas. o Digital networks tend to centralize wealth and limit overall economic growth o While social institutions might buffer some of the impacts, the global sharing of semi-skilled information work has brought the world close but has also destabilized employment in banking, news, entertainment and other areas. o The possibility that technology could accelerate to a point where no social process could exert any control whatsoever is considered to be a technological singularity beyond which any future is opaque. ▪ The counter-thesis to technological determinism is social construction of technology, which is the idea that social processes have more influence on the development of a technology or on its impacts than the technology’s own characteristics. o “Sometimes an inventor’s values come into conflict with powerful industrial or social forces.” o Values may also be infused in the broad inventive process as people come to believe that things could be done better. o Luddites: when people reject technology in an extreme and pessimistic way. o Media can be classified by their impacts on audiences.  ▪ McLuhan said he though of radio as a hot medium since it immersed audiences and yet other have seen radio as requiring a sense of imagination to fill in the details of the story which would make it a cool medium. ▪ He had the idea that hot new media technology could be so overwhelming that people would go into a subtle state of shock as they tried to cool off from its effects. Modern concerns about addiction to social media and online video gaming systems might be seen as examples of this idea. o McLuhan said changes and growth in communication technologies could be mapped out in what he called a “tetrad” of four effects. A new medium can enhance, obsolesce, retrieve, and reverse. o The impact of digital media has been to enhance immediacy, obsolesce printed newspapers, retrieve letter writing, and reverse or diminish the political culture of the press. o Social Media: if the individual controls both the content and the time and place of reception, where everyone is both a source and receiver. KEY INFORMATION: The study of history and communication is driven by the understanding that civilizations rise and fall due to revolutions in technology and communication. History is an active investigation of past events, often shaped by personal and cultural perspectives. Historians aim to preserve the memory of past heroes and learn lessons to avoid repeating mistakes, but biases, such as Whig history or the historians fallacy, can influence interpretations. Communication technologies shape societies, with figure like Innis and McLuhan exploring how media impact culture, time, and space. Technological determinism suggest technologies shape society, while social constructionists emphasize the influence of social economic, and political factors on technological development. Reading #2: The Printing Revolution Printing: o The printing revolution bridged the medieval and modern world with enormous force, effect, and consequences. o Beginning in 1454, printing technology spread quickly over Europe and played a central role in the great sweep of events-the renaissance, the protestant reformation, the enlightenment, and the political industrial and scientific revolutions from the 1600s to the twenty-first century. o Before printing people were linked through individual and small group communication within oral and manuscript cultures o The need to replicate these manuscripts inspired woodblock printing and then moveable type o After printing the sudden acceleration of communication had enormous social and political impacts leading to even great acceleration and ever-expanding horizons. Before the printing revolution: oral culture o Humans are born with a natural capacity for complex language with thousands of words and symbols. We are pre-wired to talk and communicate, and for nearly all of our history, we have communicated songs, folklore, history, and traditions within oral culture. o Storytellers, troubadours, and jongleurs carried songs and stories in cultures where people did not read. While the troubadours were lyrics poets who dealt mainly with issues of chivalry and courtly love, the jongleurs were the itinerant singers who memorized these poems using verse and other mnemonic devices. o Along with the need for memorization, communication researchers such as Walter Ong have found that oral culture tends to be quite different from the print, visual, electronic and digital cultures that followed. People in oral cultures think in concrete and practical ways, rather than using modern abstract or linear concepts. o People in oral cultures tend to make decisions in consensus, in groups, rather than within a hierarchy. They tend to have polarized worldviews, oriented towards good and evil. They also tend to have epic sagas and poetry. o Storytellers rely heavily on themes and formulas to make these stories through a tradition of improvisation, mnemonic devices, and rote memory which helped them accurately transmit important information from generation to generation. o The move to symbols and the written language reshaped patterns of human thinking. o One of the reasons radio may have been so successful as a mass medium according to Marshall McLuhan was that it revived this sense of community. This  seemed to be a re-tribalization of a culture that longed for an older and more community-oriented communications system. Before the printing revolution: Symbols, Seals, and Icons o The earliest known enhancements to oral culture involved symbolic carvings from the Ice Age from ivory and bone. o Another class of symbols before printing involved seals and stamps for making impressions on clay, wax, papyrus or fabrics. The purpose may have been decorative or authoritative. o Symbolic and visual communication was also embedded in medieval and renaissance architecture, sculpture, and painting. These iconic images were the news and educational vehicles of the day. Before the printing revolution: Writing and Manuscript cultures o We often see writing as the first communications revolution that extended natural human abilities. o The first kinds of writing involved the use of clay tokens dating back to 8500 to ancient Mesopotamia and ancient China. These tokens were meant to keep track of resources like grain and animals and were three-dimensional solid shapes like spheres, cones, and cylinders. Increasing trade led to a further need to simplify accounting, which spurred the development of writing o Hieroglyphic symbols emerged in Egypt around 3500 while formal Chinese writing emerged around 1500 to 1200 also some early primitive writing goes back to 6600 bce. o Like Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese and Mayan written languages are logographic, in that they began with representations of familiar objects through a logo or representation of the object. The simplest type of logograms would be direct representations of the object. o Egyptian, Chinese, and Mayan systems were also partially syllabaric systems in that the written symbols in the more complex forms of the language can represent the syllables that make up different words o The alphabetic language: individual characteristics represent phenomes (sounds) of the spoken language. The first alphabetic writing dates back to about 1800 ce. The alphabet was a democratization of writing, and alphabets in the world today are derived from that original Semitic script. Impact of writing and manuscript culture o Writing and printing introduced more linear, sequential, and homogenous approach to thinking, in contrast to the older oral cultures of heroic epics, songs,  and tales told by firelight. Theorist Walter Benjamin saw mechanical reproduction of writing and art as contributing to a loss of social ritual and personal identity. o Plato warned that writing would lead to the loss of memory, which was of the key elements of rhetoric. o Although specialized messengers could be trained to remember complex messages to be carries over time and distance, scribes with flexible media could more easily speed messages through empires, and this was vital to their success. o Logographic: Representations of familiar objects through a logo. o Syllabaric: certain symbols stand for syllables. o Alphabetic: individual characters stand for phonemes of the spoken language. o Writing grew naturally from the elite, in early cultures to the upper and then middles classes in the Greek and Roman empires. o Literacy faded during the medieval period because reading and writing were exclusively the province of the clergy o Writing is what allowed humans to conserve intellectual resources, to preserve the legacy without having to keep all the details in their heads and devote energy to advancing knowledge. o Mass media began with the printing revolution. Technologies of writing: o Stone: carvings and paintings on stone are found through the ages as permanent records of empire and faiths. o Clay: the simplest and earliest writing medium. Tablets and markers from ancient Mesopotamia have been recovered. Scribes once used a wedge-shaped stylus to make marks in clay, which was then fired in kilns to create a permanent record. The play could be recycled for reuse later if the record was not permanent. Early Mesopotamian writing is called Cuneiform which is latin for wedge-shaped. o Papyrus: The plant native to the wetlands of the Nile Valley that was originally used by the Greek, Egyptians, and Romans. They pounded it flat and laid it crossways to create a sheet of papyrus paper, this was effective because the plant has a glue-like material that holds the sheet together. o Wax Tablets: On a wooden backing, Greece and Rome used this for writing that was temporary. Two tablets could be hinged together to protect the wax. o Parchment: employed the skin of sheep, goats, cows, or other animals. Unlike leather, parchment membranes are soaked and scraped thing to provide a high- quality writing surface. The best was vellum made from calfskin. o Silk: used for transmitting and preserving important religious and civil texts. Silk was flexible but very expensive, and its use was highly restricted to royalty. o Paper: Finely chopped wood or rag fibers are mixed with glue in a vat, and then poured over a screen. The thin layers of fibers on the screen dries into paper.  Scraping and smoothing animal skins is part of the ancient process of preparing parchment, a long-lasting but expensive medium. o Scrolls: Parchment, papyrus or paper rolled up on either end. Information is kept sequentially in a scroll. o Codex(book): a codex is a group of pages of paper or parchment that is gathered from one side at the back. A codex is a book if the pages are separate, but older forms of codex may also have pages folded in series, like an accordion. KEY INFORMATION: o The printing revolution beginning in 1454, drastically transformed communication and played a pivotal role in shaping events like the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment. Prior to this, communication was primarily oral or through handwritten manuscripts, with stories, traditions, and information passed through memorization and performance. Oral cultures, based on communal decision-making and concrete thinking, were distinct from the abstract and linear thinking introduced by written language. The development of symbols, seals, and early writing systems like hieroglyphs and alphabets further expanded communication, but it was the printing press that allowed for mass dissemination of knowledge, reshaping society and accelerating historical progress. The Divine Art: The printing Revolution: 1400’s to 1814 Gutenbergs business involved a new way to make the small metal badges that were popular with people who were on religious pilgrimages. Gutenberg’s complex system included metal forges and molds for type; a way to set the type; a long-lasting ink; a new kind of press; contracts for high quality linen paper; methods to stack and order pages; and financing to pull the system together. Peter Schoffer, began the second wave of the printing revolution with a popular form of religious book called a psalter. They also printed two editions of works by the roman poet Cicero describing the issues in a war between two contending bishops in Main in 1462. It was one of the first uses of the press to disseminate and comment on the news of the day. In 1465 two German printers sponsored by catholic cardinal started a new printing operation near Rome. Three other printing companies moved to Venice and by 1471 the number of printing businesses began to grow. Precursors of the printing revolution: o Gutenberg’s system of printing text with moveable type was new in 1454 but the process of making an impression with ink on a raised surface was ancient. o The earliest known printed images are from cylinder seals used in early Mesopotamian civilizations from around 3500 bce. Made from hard stone, glass, or ceramic materials, they were rolled across wet clay or textiles to create  repeating patterns. Engraved seals and stamps continued to be used for thousands of year to print on clay and cloth. o Chinese artists and scribes used woodblock printing for images, and sometimes text, starting from the sixth century. In Europe, similar woodblock images were widely used for playing cards and pictures of saints from the 1200s on. Artists who wanted fine detail and longer press runs shifted to metal plates by the 1400s. o Woodblock is not suitable for more than a few thousand impressions, since images and text start to get fuzzy as the edges of the wood break down under the pressure of the press. o Bi Sheng was the first to come up with a solution to the moveable type problem. He cut characters onto the top of thin clay squares and then baked them into hard ceramic tiles. The difficulty was keeping the surface height of all of the separate tiles exactly even in order to ensure that the ink would be perfectly distributed. ▪ To fix this problem he places all the tiles on a board with a thick coat of wax, and then heated up the board. When the wax was soft, he pressed the tiles down from the top with a metal plate, making them all even as they receded into the wax and then he would let it cool. o Printing emerged because Gutenberg’s insight into the key problem of moveable metal type occurred at a moment when all of the right conditions and technologies were in place. These included a surplus of paper and ink, as well as presses for printing, foundries for metalsmithing and a system for business investments. ▪ Most importantly it occurred because of the rising need for education among the nobility and merchants of renaissance Europe starting around the 1200s o Two German Printers, John of Speyer and his brother Wendelin were the first to bring printing to Venice in the late 1460s. o Nicholas Jenson invented roman type which was based on the capital lettering used in Roman Architecture along with a standard lower-case script style developed by monks. o Aldus Manutius changed this high-end business model in the 1490s when he began publishing books for the public at reasonable prices, rather than works of art for the elite. o By 1500, Venice had produced half of the four million first printed books, called incunabula. By 1500 Paris had 75 printing houses and was beginning to surpass Venice, thanks in part to strong royal patronage. o As Venice declined in power and freedom, the industry moved north to the great printing centers of Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris, and London. Why printing was revolutionary o The rapid diffusion of printing is explained by high demand for books in the Renaissance and their suddenly much lower cost.  o The printing revolution regrouped people and skills. The older skills included papermaking, ink manufacturing, leather working, bookbinding and book marketing. The new skill included press work, typesetting, and foundry type casting Printing and the Renaissance o The new desire for knowledge, the new institutions, the new spirit of exploration, and the new focus on human rather than religious goals all marked the beginning of the Renaissance. o Some scholars have pointed to the lag between the start of the renaissance and the development of the printing industry as an indication that social construction was more significant than technological determinism in the printing revolution. o The first goal for early printers was to increase the availability of religious texts. A second goal was to recover ancient roman and Greek manuscripts. o The publishing agenda of French, dutch, and English printers increasingly emphasized nationalistic and humanistic goals during the expansion of northern printing in the 1500s and 1600s. o Initial effects of printing ▪ Unifying national languages. Books published in certain languages has the effect of codifying and standardizing far-flung dialects. This would become a cornerstone of national identity. ▪ Standardization of information was another effect of printing since it allowed exact reproduction of information in a way that manuscript copying did not. The certainty of accuracy was another was that printing was an improvement over oral and manuscript culture. ▪ Printing itself became standardized in the early 1500s making possible a new kind of non-linear access to information through title pages and tables of contents and page-numbering systems. Other improvements included better type fonts such as roman and italic, and a standardized printing production process codified in books. ▪ Major social impacts of printing included the spread of humanism and individualism. ▪ New ideas and exploration about human topics began to attack the social and religious structure in Europe and undermine the hold of religion on culture in the years just before the protestant reformation. ▪ Printing also boosted the renaissance sense of individualism and achievement by elevating individuals through biography and authorship. ▪ With standardization and individualism came the possibility of personal comparisons: old ideas could be contrasted, contradictions could be revealed, and new ideas could be presented. o Printing and the Protestant Reformation:  ▪ Scripture was at the center of the medieval world and during mass, priests, and bishops would read manuscripts from the Latin Gospels aloud and then use the sermon to interpret the readings in a liturgical fusion of oral and manuscript culture. ▪ Printed posters were helpful in recruiting soldiers to fight against invading Turks in the 1450’s and printing accelerated the church’s ability to trade cash for the forgiveness of sings. ▪ The destruction of Christian accord began to occur when the church reacted with alarm to translations of the bible into vernacular languages. o Martin Luther and printing: ▪ Martin Luther wrote a letter to the Bishop of Mainz and nailed a copy to the doors of a cathedral in Germany. His point was that sales of indulgences were gross violations of the original idea of confession and penance. For the first time in history, the power of a revolutionary idea was fully amplified by a mass medium. ▪ Luthers followers began to see the printing press as an agent of freedom, delivering them from bondage to the Roman Church and delivering the light of true religion to Germany. ▪ After the Lutheran revolt started, the Reformation was well underway across Europe, and Protestant leaders took full advantage of the press. In the process, Switzerland became something of the European capital of Protestantism, and Clavin’s Reformed Church was the source of English Puritanism, Scottish Presbyterianism, and French Huguenot Protestantism. ▪ In England political power see-sawed between protestants and catholics and each side used the press. Henry VIII first suppressed Lutherans and the vernacular Bible translations, but then broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and established a separate Church of England. He ordered the printing of an English language bible. o The Counter-Reformation: ▪ Church officials fought back with ruthless counter-reformation. As a result, religious warfare broke out across Europe and the fighting continued for generations. In Germany, 25-40% of the population would perish in religious warfare between 1524 and 1648 ▪ Religion was an important element in conflicts that continued to plague Europe. o The slow emergence of religious tolerance: ▪ Printing helped plunge Europe into centuries of religious warfare, and also amplified calls for tolerance and reason. As religious warfare receded, the need for religious tolerance became a primary ideal among enlightenment writers.  ▪ Sebastian Castellio in France became one of the first proponents of freedom of conscience ▪ In England, John Foxe strengthened Protestantism but also enunciated a sweeping doctrine of tolerance. ▪ A British poet John Milton matched the idea of religious tolerance to the historical touchstone of the Athenian senate and marketplace, arguing for a marketplace of ideas. ▪ The North American Protestant colonies avoided religious war, but were notoriously intolerant of religious deviance. ▪ Tolerance was a large part of the new creed of printing, and it was within this cultural ferment that the renaissance gave way to the Enlightenment. Printers naturally wanted to expands markets but the capitalistic motive was not the central point. o Scientific and Technical Impacts of the Printing Revolution: ▪ Printing was probably the most important element in capturing the scientific and technological revolution from the Renaissance forward. ▪ Printing spread news of exploration, descriptions of new technologies, improvements in medicine, insights into astronomy, and information about a host of other discoveries. ▪ Printing spurred the exploration of physical and mental horizons with the publications of exact maps, charts, and astronomical tables. ▪ The power of press also influenced the way geographic discoveries were understood. ▪ Scientists began to adopt the printing press as part of their educational and research efforts. While the church continued suppressing many new ideas, its rear-guard defense of an old way of thinking was doomed by the new media revolution. ▪ Some reformers used the press to challenge the elites. ▪ As the horizon of knowledge expanded, the role of printing in forming communities became appreciated. Publishers of all kinds of books encouraged readers to help amend the next edition. ▪ Einstein attributes the advent of participatory media to both idealistic and commercial motives, but there are parallels to crowd-sourcing in the digital age. o News in Print: ▪ The need to hear and share news is universal in human cultures and a central part of what defines a community. Personal news is the first thing most people discuss when they haven’t seen each other in a while. People want to know the latest events in politics, religion, finance, and other areas whether they are in oral culture or a literate culture or some blend of two.  ▪ In Rome and China bureaucrats wrote of political events in the capitals and sent the news out to the provinces. Commercial newsletters were produced as early as 131 and armies of scribes were employed to copy, publish and sell books by the thousands. ▪ Aside from individual correspondence and oral communication, there are few known examples of mass communication in Europe between the fall of the roman empire and the early renaissance. Around the 1380’s the emergence of banks and international trading made small group communication necessary, and regular handwritten newsletters were copied and sent by messenger. ▪ Book publishing dominated the printing trade after Gutenbergs invention caught on, but a wide variety of small publications were also coming into print. Book merchants offered single-page woodblocks and engravings, along with pamphlets and booklets, such as religious tracts and sermons, exhortation to join causes, or speeches by monarchs and other public figures. ▪ Four basic kinds of new publications emerged: Relation: a one-time publication about a single event, for example a battle or a coronation usually printed on a small single sheet Coronto: a small bound book about news from a foreign country. Diurnal: a regular publication that covered one subject, typically events in government. Mercury: a small bound book that would cover events from a single country for six months at a time. ▪ Industry-oriented newsletters from groups like the Bureau of National Affairs might be considered modern day mercury in that they are issued daily or weekly but kept and bound by volume, and then used as reference books in specific industry and regulatory areas. o First newspapers: ▪ Johann Carolus the owner of French book printing company decided to use the new printing press to save himself some time and began publishing the first newspaper. ▪ The spread of newspapers and the relationships between printers of various nations is also illustrated by the career of Benjamin Harris, a publisher of small textbooks and whig reformist tracts in London in the 1670’s. ▪ Despite the difficult o publishing news using woodblock printing a prototype of newspapers, called Kawaraban, emerged in Japan in the seventeenth century with news about natural disasters, social events, love  suicides, and other topical issues. A growing literacy rate supported the new media. o Censorship and freedom of the press: ▪ The word censor comes from the ancient roman office of censor, established around 443 bce, which was responsible for public morals as well as keeping track of the population through a census. In Rome, as in most other countries at most times, censorship of speech and writing was common. ▪ Freedom of speech had its early defenders such as Socrates. Punishment for others who strayed too far from the official view is all too common in history, although freedom of speech and religion have occasionally been prized in some cultures. ▪ The Magna Carta of England guaranteed some rights but not freedom of speech. ▪ The advent of the printing press in Europe presented new challenges to the political and religious authorities, and four basic approaches to censorship were used Licensing of a printing company itself Pre-press approval of each book or edition of a publication Taxation and stamps on regular publications Prosecution for sedition against the government or libel of individuals ▪ Often both state and church censored publications. The church issued the first index of prohibited books in 1559 and through its control of universities also controlled all other kinds of publications. ▪ The dual system of censorship was widely used in catholic nations around the world to prevent the invasion of protestant ideas in latin America in subsequent centuries. ▪ Protestant nations were also engaged in political censorship. Printing was controlled by licensing through the Stationers Company and punishment for printing unlicensed material was meted out by the Star Chamber. ▪ The strict censorship of laws was overturned as parliament demanded reform and outright censorship ended in 1692, following the glorious revolution. ▪ One of the first countries to put an end to censorship was Sweden. ▪ The ideas about free speech that took hold in the new marketplace of ideas came from people like john locke, jean Jacques rousseau, Benjamin franklin, Thomas paine, and Thomas Jefferson. They insisted that human rights were natural, and not simply handed down by governments or kinds.  The very structure of government ought to be balanced to allow people to act according to these natural rights. ▪ “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.” ▪ Freedom of the press was seen as among the natural freedoms, and it was among the first freedoms that also included religion, speech, and assembly to be recognized during the American Revolution. o Political Revolutions ▪ While every revolution has its own unique causes and effects, revolutionary changes in media are often intertwined with rapid changes in the social structure. ▪ Revolutionaries from the 17th to 20th century have advocated using the media of their day to advance the political revolutions they created. ▪ Political change is not only marked by a clash of classes or cultures, but is often an outcome of changes in the way people exchange ideas. ▪ When England’s Parliament broke with the monarchy, starting the English civil war, England’s small printing shops quickly expanded into a full- blown industry. ▪ The end of censorship in England came in 1694 with the end for the formal licensing system, a result of the glorious revolution of 1688. The revolution marked the end of the English civil war and the birth of a new period of religious tolerance and press freedom. ▪ Governments continued to suppress printing in the American Colonies. Prosecutions for libeling the government continues. Trust was not a defense in such cases and in fact truthful criticism was seen as even worse since it more credibly undermined authority. ▪ The pre-revolutionary period in America was marked by the rise of printing establishments in every major city in the colonies, and new printers were frequently assisted on liberal terms by Benjamin Franklin. ▪ The success of the American Revolution and the role played by the press, meant that press freedom would be protected in a way that would inspire many other countries. ▪ A new network of newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides, songs, and other media were the central part of the democratic culture of the revolution. The new form of press was a symbol of the revolution; the change in medium was part of the revolutionary message. ▪ Newspapers helped consolidate the gains of the revolution but also split into partisanship over the course of the revolution with leading papers favoring the Girondists or the Jacobins.  ▪ The press was needed in the early stages of the revolution to circulate the declaration of rights of man, ideas for the new constitution, new currency, a new calendar, a new map, and changes to the language itself. ▪ The Spanish and Portugues were yoked to authoritarian political systems from the earliest days of the press, and censorship was strict and relentless. The Partisan Press before the Industrial Revolution: o In Europe, the number of daily and weekly newspapers grew from about 2400 in 1820 to about 12,000 by 1900 even though publishers were handicapped by censorship, higher taxes, and higher postal rates. o In the US newspapers were supported by favorable postal rates as part of a strategy for democratic self-government. The US Postal Service was considered a public service operating with the idea of unifying a widely disbursed population. o In the US, the system of low postal rates, editor exchanges, and widespread competition would change rapidly, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, as steam printing transformed local publishing and the telegraph changed the way national news was distributed. o The Glorious revolution of 1688 set the stage for the reform in England. Parliament approved a resolution, noting that prior restraint was impractical; it hindered scholars and hurt the printing trade. o The stamp tax imposed in 1724 made cheap newspapers vanish until 1855 when the tax was repealed. o The fourth estate was a reference to the growing power of the press by Whig party leader Edmund Burke in a 1787 speech to parliament. o Journalists and their ideas traveled back and forth across the English channel and the Atlantic ocean as London became europe’s hothouse of political debate. o William Cobbett showed that the role of the British press in the social reform movements of the late 1700’s and early 1800’s could be daring, despite the frequent imposition of jail terms. o Thomas Jefferson denounced the Sedition Act in the US as it was a violation of the first amendment which guaranteed freedom of speech and press. The states and not the federal government were ultimately sovereign, and therefore the federal government could not take away the rights of citizens. o Hezekiah Niles is often remembered as the editor who tried to stop the civil war as he anticipated the conflict as early as 1820 and attempted to outline economic policies like diversification and public works that might lead toward compromise and reconciliation. Key Takeaways: o The notes cover the transformative impact of the printing revolution, starting with Gutenberg’s innovative approach to creating moveable type, which revolutionized printing from manual to mechanized processes in the mid-15th century. This shift  led to a surge in printing activity, with early examples including the production of religious texts and classical works. By the late 15th century, printing expanded across Europe, significantly lowering book costs and increasing accessibility. This democratization of information catalyzed the Renaissance, boosted humanism and individualism, and played a critical role in the Protestant Reformation by spreading reformist ideas. Printing also accelerated scientific discoveries and technical advancements. Despite initial censorship efforts, the press eventually became a vital medium for political and social change, laying the groundwork for modern democratic and participatory media systems. Reading #3: the commercial and industrial media revolution Steam powered printing launches a new media era o Workers all over England have been losing their jobs to the steam engine. o The advantage of the steam press is not just speed, but also less physical labor. This is important for the pressmen. o The revolution from handcrafted printing to industrial printing production led to costs of production coming down due to mass circulation and the potential for advertising support to go up. o Stereotyping became vital in the 1840s and 1850s because it could be used for cylindrical printing plates on high-speed rotary presses. This allowed circulation to grow from the tens of thousands to hundred of thousands for big-city newspapers. The penny press: a news media revolution o Steam presses and stereotyping created more profits for publishers in two ways: a better economies of scale on the production side and higher prices for advertising since messages reached more potential customers. o The penny press business model took off first in the US in the 1830s where taxes did not hold back the development of competing newspapers. By the 1850s the penny press revolution began to have impacts in Britain an the rest of Europe. The mode was also replicated in the broadcasting industry in the 1920s where advertising supported content development. o The penny press model was the dominant business model until the early twenty- first century when advertising income dropped rapidly and the circulation- advertising cycle began moving in reverse, as declining circulation meant rapidly declining advertising revenues. o Before the penny press revolution, circulation was limited to the thousands and oriented toward the social elite. After the penny press revolution publishers could serve broad public tastes rather than elite segments of a community. o At a glance, the new media of the 1830s looked a lot like the old media but the editorial agenda had changed drastically, shifting from long political discussion sto short descriptions of events, crimes and candals. From summary essays about social trends to first-person accounts by paid reports. From long-form descriptions to the inverted pyramid that placed key developments in the lead of the news articles. o Four of New Yorks emerging daily newspapers in the 1830s are remembered as prototypes of the penny press revolution: the sun, the herald, the tribune, and the new York times. o Benjamin day: ▪ Owner of the New York Sun ▪ The purpose of his paper was to provide news of the day at a price within the means of everyone. The paper was a modest success but people were more interested in bizarre news. He hired a police court reporter and a small army of newsboys to hawk the paper on the streets within a month circulation reached 1200 and within a year it reach 10,000 ▪ The sun invented the Edinburgh journal of science with elaborate descriptions of new astronomical telescopes and lunar geography along with descriptions of bat-like winged humans living in the canyons of the moon. ▪ It was purchase in 1868 by Charles henry dana. His sun emphasized the human interest story with brief articles about a wide range of activities evolving into what has been called the first tabloid newspaper. ▪ The sun also earned a prominent place in history with its September 21, 1897 editorial by francis p church who wrote in answer to a young girls inquiry ▪ The sun was gone by 1920 o Greeley: ▪ The sun tried to deal with the human condition in ways that elite paper did not, it had an unprofessional, smirking attitude. o Colonel James webb ▪ Editor of the courier and enquirer bemoaned the success of penny trash. He shot back that the public had been imposed upon by ten dollar trash long enough. o James Gordon Bennet, editor of the new York herald. ▪ Characterized by grim determination.  ▪ He worked out of a cellar and struggled with bankruptcy for a year before the herald became one of the leading national newspapers in the 19th century. ▪ They reported on robberies, rapes, and murders from the criminal courts of new York. ▪ IN 1838, bennet became obsessed with the murder of ellen Jewett. ▪ It carried regular church news but the editorial page attacked the catholic church. ▪ The herald was the leading newspaper during the war. ▪ It was the first to report the news of defeat of general George custer against the Sioux at the battle of little big hron in 1876 o Horace Greeley and the new York times: ▪ 1841 with the idea of publishing a trustworthy and moral newspaper. ▪ He promoted social causes such as womens rights, labor unions, and the end of monolie.s He was also remembered for the admonition. ▪ He also advocated preservation of redwood forests and supported the idea of national parks. ▪ He hired karl marx as London correspondent. Marx wrote 48 articles for the tribune including his 1982 observation about the resistance by the British working class of the idea of Britain entering the us civil war. ▪ He promoted Abrahams presidency and helped form the republican party in the 1850s. o The times of London had become britains leading newspaper represeniting a conservative philosophy that opposed most. An example is the reaction to heavy- handed environmental cleanup of the London water and sewer systems. o The times coverage of war and affairs of the empire. William howard Russell particularly reporting on the charge of the light brigade created political shck waves in Britain. o The times was a penny newspaper. It was held back by taxes that were dsigned to hinder growth and reform-minded publications. o The argument against the penny press was that American newspapers were wretched and inferior, flippancy for wit. o The English press is more concentrated in its means than the german: it si more versatile and honorable than the French, and it can be more relied upon and is more decen in its tone. o The end of newspaper taxes in the mid-1850s opened the door for British penny press newspapers. The telegraph promoted featured articles about crime, murder, and curiosities models. o In 1908, the telegraph published an interview with German Kaiser Wilhelm that contributed to tensions before World War 1. o In 1940, the Daily Telegraph held its first crossword competition. o William Thomas Stead (1849-1912) editor of the pall mall gazette. It was originally published as a highbrow gentlemans publication. Stead turned it into more of an Apocalyptic paper “to secure the final overthrow of the powers of darkness in high places” o One of steads ideas was “government by journalism” in which press would have its own leaders in Parliament with the power to inspect all government departments. Journalistic major general would be appointed to serve as public opinion pollsters and interrogators of democracy. He was trying to systemize and normalize a strong existing trend “for the purpose of molding a constituency into his own way of thinking, the editor has every advantage on his side.” o Although considered one of the great editors of the day, Stead did not have the discipline to combine editorial flair with financial independence like James Gordon Bennet or Horace Greeley. o The press in France: ▪ The French played a pivotal role in the enlightenment and French revolution ▪ Emile de Girardins La presse and Armand Dutacqs le sicle lowered subscription costs and attempted to make up the losses through advertising as did the sun, herald, and tribune, in New York. ▪ One French innovation was the serialized novel, called the roman- feuilleton. ▪ Serialization of novels had an enormous impact on the idea of the novel itself. ▪ Another French innovation was the news agency which later with he aid of the telegraph would become known as wire service. ▪ The worlds first agency founded by Charles Louis Havas in 1835 with the idea of exchanging and translating news among European nations. ▪ By the 1850’s direct censorship was converted into a system of ministerial avertissements and suspensions, but French journalists considered the system just as deadly to social progress. ▪ “The press is the most powerful instrument of government in modern studies” o The German and Hungarian press: ▪ Traditionally served political elites. ▪ The rise in literacy between 1750 and 1870s helped drive and reinforce the increases in the circulation and numbers of newspapers. ▪ The various german states had a long history of press censorship interrupted only by a brief period of liberalization during the Napoleonic  Period when Prussian authorities tolerated liberal nationalist newspapers such as the Rheinischer Merkur if they opposed Napolean o The revolutions of 1848: ▪ the revolutions of 1848 in Europe were a series of urban uprisings on the European continent, from France to Poland and from Denmark to Italy. ▪ By the end of the cold war, revolutionaries were well aware of each others efforts through the news media. They formed barricades, printed newspapers, and demanded their rights. ▪ In Italy the 1848 revolution led into a broader fight for unification. ▪ One of the major demands of the revolutionaries in all countries was freedom of the press, and new press laws permitted the founding of the berlin national-zeitung in 1848. ▪ In hungary the uprisings of March 15, 1848 stemmed from a nationalistic desire for independence from Austria. ▪ Karl Marx: founded and edited a reformist newspaper in 1842 in Berlin. He was tried for incitement to rebellion. He argued that the law must reflect social realities and when those realities change, the law must also change. ▪ Marx’s writing was usually in editorial-essay form, which was a favored style and was relatively modern. His method as a journalist was to present readers with a brief sketch of events or characters, emphasizing hidden interests. Working as a journalist exposed Marx to deplorable working conditions common at the time and gave him the scope to test out ideas that would educate the people in preparation for the coming revolution. ▪ Marx was an advocate of a free press ▪ In the mid-nineteenth century most newspapers did not cater to popular tastes and mass audience, but were opinion journals containing partisan analysis of political trends. This changed with the emergence of mass-circulation dailies in the 1870s according to Historian Corey Ross, since increasing reliance on advertising revenue and mass circulation meant increasing concern for public opinion. o The progressive era: crusading, yellow, and tabloid journalism ▪ High speed printing allowed newspaper circulation to reach huge population and also increased the power of the press in politics ▪ Modern genres and prototype of modern public affairs journalism emerged in the 1880-1920 period under a variety of labels-muckraking, yellow journalism, crusading journalism, objective journalism, literary journalism, and others. ▪ Crusading journalism and Joseph Pulitzer  Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) developed his famous crusading journalism style by studying the editorials of Horace Greeley, the sensational news style of James Gordon Bennet, and the success of illustrated newspapers such as harpers and the illustrated London news. He made newspapers appeal to working-class readers, especially immigrant who needed to understand the politics and culture of the country in a positive light. He was inspired by Schurz and the European revolutionaries of 1848. He was passionate to the cause of liberty: the liberty of action, of opinion, of government One of his tactics was to publish essays by outstanding writers from both sides of the Atlantic expressing their admiration for the other nation, humanizing the public image of Britain and making them an unlikely enemy. Pulitzer also crusaded against racism His legacy lives on in the Pulitzer Prizes and the establishment of a journalism school at the Columbia University in New York ▪ Scripps and the first newspaper chain Edward Wyllis Scripps (1854-1926) exemplified the free-spirited industrial age of the press. He owned 25 newspapers by the time of his death He was also known for founding the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Science Service. He would print sensational anti-corruption stories in the progressive muckraking style. Science in New York was characterized by sensationalism at both Joesph Pulitzers World and William Randolph Hearsts Journal. The World ran a column that focused on exciting and miraculous discoveries. The sensationalistic media of the era reflected the sensibilities of the working class. Carr Van Anda advocated for serious science coverage. He became famous for his understanding of physics and math Walter Lippmann would advocate a place for science at the heart of American life alongside religion. ▪ Yellow Journalism and William Randolph Hearsts  Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) the famed yellow journalism publisher whose career spanned the late nineteenth to the mid- twentieth century. Hearsts media empire included 28 newspapers and 13 magazines and 8 radio stations. He was a populist reformer who championed labor unions early in his career. He inherited millions to start publishing and then attacked monopolies under the motto of “truth, justice and public service. Hearst used Bennetts formula of sensationalism, illustrations, and personality features to attract readers. He approached subjects with energy, enterprise, and originality. In 1895, Hearst purchased the new York journal and began a reckless circulation war with Pulitzers world. Yellow ink was a novelty at the time, it was so heavily used for comics and came to symbolize the style of tawdry journalism. ▪ Tabloid Journalism and Alfred Harmsworths daily mail Harmsworth started the London daily mail. By 1903 he also started the daily mirror which was originally a newspaper for women, but he found more success turning it into an illustrated newspaper for men and women. ▪ Phases of printing technology Craft printing o 1455-1820: Printing chapel o Typesetting: type is set by hand, letter-by-letter from upper and lower cases at a rate of about five words per minute o Printing: paper is fed manually into hand-pulled wooden presses at about 250 impressions per hour. Each impression is one-sided which means that once the ink has dried the same token has to get a second run o Circulation: newspapers and magazines are sent to subscribers through the mail or sold in general merchandise stores. Favorable postal rates help to subsidize widespread publishing in the US. Steam printing o 1820-1890 o Typesetting: type is still set from large cases by hand. A large daily newspaper might employ 100 workers just to set type o Stereotyping: hand set type is too loose to use in higher- speed presses. This problem is solved by casting metal  copies of hand-set type into stereotype printing plates. The plates are cast in cylindrical sleeves to fit on rotary presses o Presses: The introduction of steam-powered printing presses speeds up production to thousands of impressions per hour, expanding circulation of newspapers and magazines. The steam perss, first used in 1814 at the times in London , allows a new kind of low cost penny papers by the 1830’s o Circulation: subscriptions by mail are common for magazines but now children also hawk newspapers on city streets. Hot type o 1890s-1960s o Typesetting: German American Ottmar Mergenthaler invents the first successful typesetting machine in 1886. Operators sit at a keyboard that releases blanks then molten lead is poured over them to create the line of type o Photo halftones engraving: this allows photographs to be etched into metal plates and then printed. o Printing: Automated rotary presses use rolls of paper and can print, fold, cut and stack the newspaper or magazine. Cheap paper is also a factor with costs declining o Circulation: subscriptions by mail are still common for magazine, but circulation is mostly through home delivery carries and news vendors. Cold Type: o 1950-80 o Typesetting: photo-mechanical process invented by rene higonnet and louis moyroud sets type six times faster than linotypes at a cost of about $10,000 for a small unit in the 1970s. Photocomposition is increasingly improved by the digital revolution in the 1970s and by the 1980s word processing and typesetting are now both handled by mainframe computers. o Pre-press: sheets of photo-sensitive paper containing separate blocks of type headlines, and halftones are assembled then transferred to negatives and burned onto offset aluminum printing plates. o Photo halftone prints: halftones are printed out for paste-up no longer etched onto metal plates  o Printing: offset printing uses light aluminum plates instead of heavy cast-lead stereotypes. This allows smaller, cheaper, faster presses that can print color with accurate registration o Circulation: home delivery routes become common; postal service subsides fro publishers are reduced Digital media: o 1980s-present o Typesetting: personal computers and laser printers allowed desktop publishing making it far easier and cheaper to prepare type and photos for the press. o Pre-press: improved computers allow digital layout eliminating most pre-press layout and paste-up. Editors can now send pages straight back to the press and nearly all the production workforce is eliminated o Digital photos: associated press introduces first digital photo handling desks in 1989 eliminating halftone engraving shops in printing plants. o Printing: digital versions of pages are sent throught he internet to large presses in centralized locations, bypassing small printing operations o Circulation: news of all kinds is now available to billions of people through the world wide web and other non-print digital networks KEY INFORMATION: The evolution of the media industry, spurred by the advent of steam-powered printing and technologies like stereotyping, transformed nespapers into mass-circulation businesses. The penny press model, which emerged in the 1830’s, made newspapers affordable to a wider audience, emphasizing sensational stories over political discourse. This shift was seen in publications like the Sun and the Herald in the U.S. and later spread to Europe. The Progressive Era saw further evolution, with figures like Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst pushing sensationalist and crusading journalism, significantly impacting public affairs. The rise of mass media and advertising revenues shaped the future of the press, making it a powerful tool in both politics and society Reading #4: Print Media in the 20th and 21st centuries The printing revolutions last century: In the 1970’s most cities ended up with only one newspaper but by the early 21st century a profitable near-monopoly had underestimated the digital revolution. The UVA echoed concerns that the free press was being imperiled by accelerating technology and irresponsible publishers. During the muckraking period, the world wards and the civil rights era, the press served as the eyes and ears of the public, the conscience of the nation, and occasionally even heroes to readers. The Vietnam Watergate era tested that status and the digital revolution narrowed the ability of the press to function in the way it was intended. The Muckraking Message 1900-15: Will Irwin, published a fourteen part series in Colliers Magazine where he concluded that the press was wonderfully able, wonderfully efficient, and wonderfully powerful but with real faults. Yellow Journalism, especially the tendency of publishers like William Randolph Hearst to trump up news for personal or partisan reasons, counted as one of the faults. The biggest fault of the press was that it did not speak to his generation. By 1906 reform journalism had shaken the nations business and political institutions to the core, and questions about social stability were being raised. Impact of the muckraker speech o Roosevelts speech instantly galvanized a national debate about the role of the press. Some warned that muckraking was being used to stir up agitators, others said they were doing much-needed work. o By 1914 the era of American Muckraking ended in part by libel suits, magazine mergers, Roosevelts criticism, public opinion fatigued by crusading reformers, and the onset of world war 1. o Investigative reporting tends to appear in times when demand is created by social conditions, media competition, and new media technologies. o Ida B Wells(1862-1931): an African American editor of free speech newspaper in Memphis, tennessee and an influential leader in the early Civil Rights Movement. Investigated the 1891 lynching of the three innocent men at the hands of the white mob. o Samuel Hopkins Adams(1871-1958): Adams exposed dangerous narcotics and false advertising by the patent medicine industry, contributing to public pressure for establishing the food and drug administration o Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936): the shame of the cities investigation was one of the steffens major exposes of municipal corruption for McClures magazine  o Cecil Chesterton (1879-1918): exposed stock fraud and insider trading in the Marconi Scandal of 1912. o Ida Tarbell (1857-1944): Standard Oil Companys rise to monopoly power through corrupt business practices was the theme of Tarbells 1902 series. Her findings confirmed by congressional investigations and as a result, anti-trust laws were enforced to end the companys monopoly. o David Graham Phillips (1867-1911): Exposed senators who had taken direct bribes and campaign contributions by major corporations such as the standard oil company o Upton Sinclair (1878-1968): The Jungle a novel about grotesque conditions in the meat packing industry of Chicago, was based on investigations by Sinclair for the Socialist magainze appeal to reason. The resulting public uproar led to the establishment of the food and drug administration o Ray Standard Baker (1870-1946): Wrote following the color line in 1908, exploring racial issues in the north and south. Also reported from the front lines of world war 1 World war 1 1914-1920’s: German armies carried out carefully planned reprisals, executing civilians and burning entire towns to the ground. Among witnesses to the atrocities were American reporters Will Irwin and Richard Harding Davis. Censorship in world war 1 o For the first time, governments issued blanket censorship regulations an dput news correspondents into army uniforms. o The purpose of censorship was to prevent people at home from learning demoralizing information about defeats and difficult conditions. o Censorship also meant that newspapers could be suspended from publication by the French government for criticism of war readiness. o The war era in the us was marked by the arrest and persecution of thousands of dissidents under the espionage act of 1917. The post office banned german language and dissident newspapers from the mails which usually meant bankruptcy o Americans disliked world war 1 censorship and the morale-boosting publication censoring committee on public information The press in the Russian communist revolution: The first step in the Russian revolution was to create a newspaper. Not only would it carry the communist message but the act of working for a newspaper in itself would transform the revolutionaries.  Media in the Russian revolution did not mean that lenin supported free speech. In fact Russian newspapers became tightly run organs of the state bureaucracy and no publication was permitted to print anything remotely critical of Russia or communism. Absolute censorship was enforced within prison sentences and summary execution during Russias communist period Some argued that the suppression of free speech in Russia was not only wrong but self- defeating. Ten days that shook the world: John Reed’s classic eyewitness account of the 1917 russian revolution won worldwide acclaim The press in indias nonviolent revolution: Gandhi believed that one of the first steps of revolution was to create a newspaper. He believed in democracy and nonviolence and had a deep faith that good ideas would win converts and that struggle for liberation of india from British rule could take place with journalism helping to explain the struggle He founded a newspaper called Indian opinion in 1903 and thought it was critical to have the publication in order to explain Satyagraha, the principle behind nonviolent social revolution. Later he founded the weekly young india to promote views on political reform, religious tolerance, and economic self-sufficiency for inida. Journalism taught Gandhi the discipline of being fair and remaining cool even when he was attacked. The German Press and the Nazi Revolution: Nazi leaders decide that the arts, literature, the press, radio, and films would exist only to serve the purpose of Nazi propaganda. Following the Reich Press Law of October 1933, the countries 4700 newspapers were either closed, confiscated, or directly controlled by the Nazi party. Newspaper reporters and editors with even the mildest criticism were sent to concentration camps or killed outright. o The most notable involved the printing and distribution of leaflets by German students in the white rose movement. The pamphlets said we will not be silent in the face of abominable crimes. The students and professor were executed The American Press in World War 2: Censorship was confined primarily to military security although anything that depicted the enemy as human would be censored by the military. Ernie Pyle Maurine H. Beasley and Sheila J. Gibbons also covered the war from a womans perspective Press responsibility and the 1947 Hutchins Commission: During and after world war 2 question about press responsibility led to commission financed by the time magazine publisher henry luce. The Hutchins Commission found that freedom of expression had been imperiled by accelerating technology and by arrogant and irresponsible publishers. He recommended five major points that it said society was entitled to demand of its press: o A truthful comprehensive, and intelligent account of the days events in a context which gives them meaning o A forum for the exchange of comment and criticism o The projection of a representative picture of the constituent groups in the society o The presentation and clarification of the goals and values of the society o Full access to the days intelligence The press and civil rights: Starting in 1827 with the founding of freedoms journal in new York, the African American press fought slavery and prejudice with low budgets and high expectations. o North Star published from 1847 through the mid-1860’s by former slave Frederick Douglass The two most influential newspapers in the African-American media were the Chicago Defender founded in 1905 by Robert A. Abbott and the Pittsburgh Courier founded by Robert Lee Vann and Edwin Harleston in 1907. The success of these publications gave a voice to millions of people who were not usually hear in the mainstream media. The May 17th Brown v. Board of Education decision by the US supreme Court unanimously decided that racially segregated schools were inherently unequal and that African American students had been deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th amendment. As African Americans pressed for equality with bus boycotts, lawsuits, lunch counter sit- ins, and other nonviolent tactics, the mainstream press wondered how to cover rapidly unfolding events. New York Times advertising libel lawsuit o A group of Southern ministers ran a full-page advertisement in the times that included descriptions of events that had minor inaccuracies. The US supreme court reversed the state court decision and cleared the way for media coverage not only of the civil rights issue but of the government in general. Press divisions on civil rights o Editors James J. Kilpatrick of the Richmond Times and Thomas Waring of the Charleston Courier advocated massive resistance to integration and encouraged Southerners to fight for states rights.  o Ralph McGill was known for crafting carefully balanced editorials to depict civil rights movement as a sometimes uncomfortable but necessary and even inevitable process, a process that would help build a south that would be too busy and too generous to hate. o Between the 1950’s and 1980’s ultra-conservative southern editors resisted any coverage of civil rights rallies or demonstrations. o In witnessing the suffering of American Civil rights demonstrators, the press came to be regarded with gratitude as an agent of national reconciliation Vietnam, Watergate and the Adversarial Press: Unlike the civil rights movement the aims and conducts of the Vietnam war in general and the role of the press remained vexed political questions long after events had run their course. American assistance grew as the French lost control of the northern part of the country. The US created a weak regime in the south through the 1960’s Two major points of media controversy included the skepticism of the press corps and the impact of television images on public opinion. The American experience in world war 2 informed the US governments lack of censorship of press coverage during the Vietnam War. The pentagon papers and Watergate: o The pentagon papers: a secret history of the war drawn up by the US military and leaded to the new York times by Pentagon consultant Daniel Ellsberg. They showed that three administrators had systematically lied not only to the public but also to congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance. o Nixon asked for an injunction to halt publication and after a week of examining the papers the Supreme Court lifted the injunctions finding that the government had not met the heavy burden of proving that publication would cause grave and irreparable danger, proof that would be necessary to enforce censorship o Concern about leaks from inside the government led the Nixon administrated to break into Watergate. They unraveled a web of illegal activities including extortion and bribery. o The events surrounding watergate and the Vietnam war led to a perception of an irrationally adversarial press. Investigative journalism aroused a sense of admiration for the extent to which the press could fulfill its constitutional role as a check on government power. Literary and Gonzo Journalism: The idea of objectivity and the inverted pyramid form of writing  In the 1960’s newspapers took an approach towards literary journalism while telling a factual story, writers used novelistic devices like dialogue, omniscient narration and scene by scene construction to form a more interesting and personal narrative. The story of the century: covering science and the environment: People began to take science and the environment more seriously. People started to report more on science and the environments The end of the printing revolution: Between 2007 and 2014 us newspapers and magazines lost two-thirds of their traditional advertising income, 1/3 of their circulation and ¾ of their stock value. The decrease was caused by a broken financial model for newspapers. This undermined journalism The collapse of the American publishing industry began with ideal businesses and political conditions. Nearly all mid-sized city newspapers were comfortable monopolies. Congress passed the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 allowing newspapers ot become local monopolies. The effects of changes in technology led to one of the most consequential business failures in history. The general problem with monopolies is that the lack of efficiency makes the product overpriced and cuts in quality lead to declines in consumer demand, deadweight loss. As demand falls, prices stay high, and the downward spiral in quality leads consumers to search for alternatives and talented writers to search for circumventing media. Other trends working against newspapers: mail advertising, free newspapers, unbundled press services When the digital revolution made going online easy for everyone specialized online networks became viable enough to challenge newspapers in the 3 profit centers o Circulation(mostly paid subscriptions) ▪ The ability to read news for free, online, cut into circulation revenue. Readers could get national news directly from national media and the value of local news was marginal o Classified Advertising (selling cars, housing, looking for employees) ▪ Dropped from about 1/3 to only a fraction of overall newspaper revenue after consumers became aware of free bulletin boards. o Display advertising (from businesses with products or services to sell) ▪ General advertising is far less effective than targeted advertising. The corporate publishing industry’s response to the digital revolution is that a few organizations made a feeble attempt to meet the challenge. Key takeaways: The evolution of the press throughout the 20th century reveals significant shifts in its role and challenges. By the early 21st century, many cities had a near-monopoly on newspapers, which underestimated the digital revolutions impact. The muckraking era highlighted the press’s power to expose injustices, leading to reforms, but it faced decline due to legal pressures and public fatigue. Censorship during World War 1 and the Nazi regime exemplified the dangers of state control, while the civil rights movement saw the African American press amplify marginalized voices. The Vietnam war and watergate scandal underscored the press’s essential role in holding government accountable, fostering an adversarial relationship. However, the digital revolution led to a dramatic decline in traditional print media, as online alternatives drastically reduced readership and advertising revenue, posting existential challenges for journalism. Reading #5: Telegraph and Telephone The Telegraph: The Telegraph, introduced in the mid-1840’s marked the beginning of the electronic revolution, leading to telephones, radios, and televisions It was a source of the digital revolution, with morse code being a binary software system The telegraph was the first electronic network, or the “Victorian Internet” with messages delivered within hours and responses sent immediately. The Western Union telegraph system and the Associated Press became the first monopoly in America Government took over the telegraph companies in Europe to avoid the abuses of a monopoly system Signals over distance have been used in military campaigns, with complex systems used in naval flag systems and a complex “box cipher” The term “telegraph” was first coined for a 1792 French invention, the Napoleonic sempahore, which was used extensively by the French and British Military during the Napoleonic era. The term telegraph quickly entered the popular lexicon with admiral Horatio nelson using traditional naval signal flags before the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The optical telegraph was too expensive for routine use and could not be used in bad weather Businesses were unable to use military systems, so news was sent by carrier pigeons when events were pressing. Samuel Morse and his code: the software of telegraphy Samuel morse is often credited with inventing the telegraph, but he primarily developed Morse code, the software for telegraphic communication His innovation was crucial for utilizing existing telegraphic devices effectively. Morse was inspired by the tragic death of his wife in 1825, which highlighted the limitations of long-distance communication After years of studying art in Europe, he conceived the idea of sending signals through wires during a voyage home in 1832 Morse had a background in chemistry from Yale and believed in the interconnectedness of arts and sciences Prior inventors like steven gray and Benjamin franklin had advanced electrical transmission, but Morse’s insight was more about practical application Morse initially attempted a numerical system for telegraphic communication but ultimately collaborated with Alfred Vail to create a simplified code of dots and dashes based on letter frequency Morse’s code matched simple signal to frequently used letters, enhancing transmission efficiency Morse patented his telegraphic system on October 3, 1837 but faced challenges in finding investors He foresaw the potential power of instantaneous communication, warning about its possible misuse In 1842, Congress funded an experimental telegraph line from Washington D.C. to Baltimore, leading to public recognition of Morse’s invention Morse’s first successful message, “What Hath God Wrought” demonstrated the telegraphs potential By the mid-1800s telegraph companies proliferated in the U.S. and Europe with substantial infrastructure built rapidly Internationally countries like Britain and Germany quickly expanded their telegraph lines, while France initially lagged. Early attempts to connect North America and Europe via undersea cables faced significant challenges, culminating in a failed 1858 cable. A successful transatlantic cable was established in 1866, leading to a surge in global telecommunication Telegraph ushers in a New Era of Communication Enthusiasts believed the telegraph would stimulate the public mind and create a sense of unity. Naturalist and writer Henry David Thoreau, however, viewed the telegraph as an “improved means to an unimproved end.”  Some critics questioned the telegraphs ability to rescue a man from sin or transport him to heaven The telegraph led to the modern conception of news and methods of news gathering Before the telegraph, colonial newspapers printed news as it arrived in the mail or by word of mouth with timeliness secondary to record keeping The costs of telegrams forced journalists to condense their facts and fit the most important information into the first few words of the dispatch This change demonstrates McLuhans idea that the medium is or has a major influence on the message Before the telegraph news reports were longer, flowery, and patriotic, while later dispatches were factual and terse. The telegraph revolutionized the newspaper industry, forcing them to adopt a new business model. The Mexican-American war in 1846 led to a cooperative news gathering agreement between five New York newspapers, including the Times and the Herlad This cooperative, along with an 1848 Harbor News Association, formed the New York Associated Press in 1851 A second associated press formed around Chicago and st. louis in 1862, which merged with the new York group in 1900 By the mid-1860s western union and the two associated press groups agreed on low rates, exclusive use of services and a mandatory refusal to transmit hostile information The monopoly allowed existing members to veto new members, leading to controversies and failed attempts to start newspapers in cities without AP membership. 25 years after Morse’s demonstration, the U.S. had over 120,000 miles of telegraph lines Most independent telegraph companies were acquired by western union, leading to public concern about monopolistic control over information Charles A. Sumner criticized the AP-Western Union alliance as a threat to freedom and democracy, influencing legislative efforts for regulation The issue of telegraph regulation was heavily discussed int eh press and was a popular topic for academic debate The associated press claimed first amendment protections against regulation while Wester union leveraged its media ties to maintain a favorable public image Accusations surfaced regarding AP’s unethical business practices, including information theft and market exclusion AP created a supposed competitor, United Press, which ultimately failed due to AP’s restrictive practices Texas passed a law targeting the AP in 1899, imposing penalties for not selling news to competitors  The AP lost a key antitrust case in 1900, emphasizing the necessity of access to news for newspapers viability After losing the case, AP moved to New York, Where business laws were more lenient regarding monopolistic practices. The Ap-Western Union monopoly was part of a broader trend of industry consolidation in the late 1800s with similar practices seen in other sectors. While some monopolies improved efficiency, many ignored consumer needs and engaged in price manipulation. Critics noted the importance of news as public good, expressing concerns over biased reporting from monopolistic sources Labor organizers faced challenges in raising awareness of unsafe working conditions, leading to public backlash against AP AP’s resistance to competition persisted until 1945 when it lost an antitrust case, with the Supreme Court affirming that freedom to publish should apply to all entities. Specialized newsletters date back to the renaissance, aligning with the rise of banking and stock markets. Early news services catered primarily to an elite audience, while general news was slow to reach the public Charles Louis Havas, Paul Reuter, and Bernhard Wolff revolutionized news distribution by utilizing the telegraph for rapid information transmission Charles Louis Havas began as a military supply officer, then became a banker and newspaper entrepreneur. Established Agence Havas in 188, the world’s first news agency, after recognizing the need for organized news during the liberalization of the press in France Initially, Havas used carrier pigeons to transport British newspaper news to Paris, later adopting the telegraph in 1845 Havas’s agency became publicly traded and dominated the news industry for nearly a century. His former employees, Wolff and Reuter, founded their own agencies-Wolffs telegraphists Bureau in Berlin and Reuters in London After working for Havas, Reuter capitalized on telegraph expansion by connecting news from Germany to Belgium and later establishing himself in London. Havas supported the founding of Agenzia Telgrafica Stefani in Italy and linked with a Spanish news agency that eventually became EFE, the largest Spanish-language wire service The diversity of European telegraphy led to the establishment of the international telecommunications union in 1865, which standardized morse code as the international telegraph alphabet. In 1870, Havas, Reuters, and Wolff formed a cartel to divide territories for exclusive news services, extending their influence even to the U.S. with agreements involving the AP  The European wire services often acted as semi-official agencies. Many faced challenges during fascist regimes, leading to post-war restructuring with new agencies like Agence France Press and Deustche Presse-Agentur Today major news agencies like AP, Reuters, AFP, EFE, and DPA compete in the global news market, continuing the legacy of their telegraphic predecessors. IN response to the Associated press monopoly, E.W. Scripps founded the United Press Association in June 1907, while William Randolph Hearst established the international news association in 1909. These new agencies provided independent publishers access to comprehensive news services, diminishing the perceived authority of AP dispatches A 1912 investigation highlighted failed attempts to regulate telegraphy and revealed that telegraphic message prices in the U.S. were significantly higher than in Europe IN 1913, AT&T settle with the U.S. government allowing UPA and IP to use the telegraph at costs comparable ot AP, improving their competitive position. E.W. Scripps criticized monopolies, asserting that one large news trust would be detrimental to journalism and viewed the creation of the United Press as a significant contribution to American Media UPI editor Lucian Carr noted that UPI positioned itself as a viable alternative to AP, branding itself as the little guy United Press and International press merged in 1958 to form United Press International which served over 7,000 clients at its peak in 1978 By the 1990s UPI faced challenges and eventually sold its news service contracts to AP in 1999, leading to a series of ownership changes and its decline as a major news organization The U.S. telegraph system evolved into a commercial monopoly rather than a network of independent providers or a government branch, contrary to Samuel Morse’s vision Later attempt by figures like Guglielmo Marconi and Thomas Edison to monopolize radio and film were hindered by antitrust laws, which were partly a response to the AP- Western Union situation. The Telephone as a Circumventing Technology The invention of the telephone in 1876 was a reaction to Western Unions monopolistic control over information Boston lawyer Gardiner Hubbard, frustrated with Western Union, first attempted to nationalize the telegraph system and after this failed financed Alexander Graham Bells experiments with sound amplification Bell secured the patent for the telephone on the same day Elisha Gray filed a similar patent. Despite ongoing debates, courts ruled in favor of Bell.  Hubbard organized the financing to establish the Bell Telephone Company after Bell’s patent success, and Bell married Hubbards daughter, Mabel in 1877 Bell conducted public demonstrations to popularize the telephone, showcasing its capabilities through live performances with his assistant Thomas a. Watson When Hubbard and Bell proposed selling the telephone patents to Western Union, they were met with disbelief and ridicule, as executives doubted the practicality of the device. After Western Union declined the offer, the Bell Telephone system began operation in 1877, rapidly gaining popularity, will 150,000 users within ten years. Bell worked on innovations like Edisons carbon microphone, but many of his patents expired in the mid-1890s leading to the emergence of around 6,000 independent phone companies The technological advancements from telegraph and telephone research contributed to future innovations, leading some historians to regard the telephone as the father of broadcasting Although primarily designed for communication, the telephone also had early applications in home entertainment, exemplified by systems like Telefon Hirmond in Budapest, though similar ventures in the U.S. failed. American Telephone and Telegraph was created by the Bell Company in 1885 to establish long-distance lines and became Bell’s parents company in 1899, with only half of the nations telephones part of the Bell system at the time AT&T employed aggressive strategies to eliminate competition, including denying access to long-distance lines and undermining competitors credit. In 1907, AT&T secretly acquired a company that built switching equipment to seize infringing equipment and force competitors out of business These tactics led to an antitrust investigation by the U.S. Justice Department raising the possibility of AT&T being broken up or nationalized under the Postal Service In Response, AT&T launched a significant PR campaign with the slogan one system, one policy, universal system, promoting telephony as a natural monopoly that would provide better service than a fragmented system In 1913, the Justice Department negotiated the Kingsbury commitment, allowing AT&T to remain a regulated monopoly while forcing Western Union to provide access to competing wire service at the same rates, promoting competition against the AP The Kingsbury commitment required AT&T to end its trade war and guarantee access for independent phone companies. However, it permitted AT&T to continue acquiring independent companies and manufacturing equipment through Western Electric While regulations slowed AT&T’s monopoly efforts, they do not stop them. By the mid- 20th century, AT&T controlled 80% of the U.S. phone market  In 1974, the Justice Department sued AT&T under antitrust laws, leading to a court order in 1982 to break the company into regional carriers, fostering competition and lowering long-distance rates for consumers The ruling meant that ma bell would no longer hold an exclusive monopoly on telecommunications AT&T faced challenges from radio and television networks transitioning to satellite services, which were cheaper and offered high quality, undermining AT&T’s long- distance line The breakup contributed to the decline of Be