chapter 4- newspapers 

  • history
    • caesar’s time, Rome had Acta Diurna
    • written on a tablet and posted on a wall after each Senate meeting
    • in china, early gov-produced news sheets called tipao, were commonly used among court officials during the late Han dynasty (2nd+3rd centuries AD)
    • btwn 713+714, the kaiyuan za bao (bulletin of the court) of the chinese Tang dynasty published government news; handwritten on silk and read by government officials
    • 1582- privately published news sheets appeared in Beijin, during the late Ming dynasty
    • corantos
    • 17th century- Europe’s corantos- one page news sheets abt specific events
    • diurnals- true forerunners of daily newspaper- a term that entered the eng lang by the 1600s
  • modern
    • modern newspaper emerges
    • benjamin’s day- sept 3rd, 1883
    • issue of NY sun was the first eg of the penny press- cheap, for the masses
    • medium
    • medium of the masses
    • 1827: freedom’s journal, the first African American newspaper, was published by John B. Russwurum and the Reverend Samuel Cornish
    • chicago defender- may 5th, 1905
      • most influential african american newspaper after the civil war
    • 1883: joseph pulitzer (NY world)
      • adopted a populist approach and an activist style of coverage (social crusades against “ills” and “evils”
    • followed by W.R Hearst (SF examiner, NY morning journal) and others
    • yellow journalism
    • sensationalist news (disasters, crime, sex)
    • giant headlines
    • heavy use of illustrations
    • reliance on cartoon and colour
  • newspaper and their audiences
    • 6 in 10 american adults read a daily paper every week, though not necessarily on printed paper
    • daily print newspaper circulation has reached its lowest since its peak in the 1940s
  • scope and structure of the newspaper industry
    • zoned eds
    • sub-urban and small town dailies
    • weeklies and semi weeklies
    • ethnic press
    • alternative press
  • newspaper as an advertising medium
    • advertisers find newspapers’ readers an attractive audience
    • shift to digital intake
  • trends and convergence in newspaper publishing
    • loss of competition
    • industry has seen a significant decline in competition
    • convergence with the internet
    • fear that newspapers wouldn’t compete w the internet very well as readers use online and social media platforms for news
    • electronic devices
    • find news sources on smartphones, tablets, and e-readers