Journalism in the Colonies Ayesha Ali

Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick "disobedience and heresy and... libels against the best government.” Printed by Richard Pierce and edited by Benjamin Harris September 25, 1690 Filled 3 of 4 pages Six by ten inch pages of a folded sheet of paper

Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick cont. "once a moneth, or, if any Glut of Occurrences happen, oftener." First and last 4 days later it was banned Collected and destroyed almost ever copy Only one copy is known to survived and is preserved in British Library

Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick cont. contained "sundry doubtful and uncertain Reports. Rumors of incest and immorality in the French royal family Criticized the British military for mistreating French prisoners during the French and Indian War. Committed serious offense by printing without permission. "the first newspaper published in America became the first to be suppressed by the authorities."

Benjamin Harris in London Illegally published books, pamphlets, and a newspaper 1679, he was on trial for seditious libel "You can hardly read a more bad, and pernicious book, to put us all into a Flame.” Convicted, pilloried, and sent to prison After release, he resumed attacks on the gov’t Left England to avoid further persecution

Benjamin Harris ran a bookstore, a print shop, and a well-liked coffeehouse where men met to discuss current events. His print shop made almanacs, school primers, and the Bible Published first text book, English primer Most publications were anti-Catholic Produced the Publick Occurrences

New England Courant Founded by James Franklin August 7, 1721 Simple sheet, printed on both sides 1 st “newspaper” in Boston. Though there were two papers before James’s Courant, they only printed news from abroad Carried articles, opinion pieces, advertisements, and news of ship schedules

New England Courant cont. First American newspaper to use literary content and humorous essays Also, most expensive at the time The newspapers that came before were badly done The language of the Courant set the tone for the next 100 years or more for American journalism Focused mostly on shipping reports, snippets of information from neighboring towns, and letters from Europe It was later suppressed in 1727

New England Courant cont. Benjamin Franklin apprenticed to his brother James He wrote letters at night and signed them with the name of Silence Dogwood Silence Dogwood was filled with advice and very critical of the world around her After 16 letters, Ben confessed and James did not take it well The Franklins’ believed inoculation made people sicker. The powerful Puritan preachers, the Mathers supported inoculation. They did not like the way James made fun of the clergy. James was sent to jail and Benjamin ran the paper James was not thankful to Ben for running the paper, and harassed Benjamin so much that he ran away in 1723.

Pennsylvania Gazette First began in 1728 First published by Samuel Keimer The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences: and Pennsylvania Gazette On October 2, 1729, Benjamin Franklin and Hugh Meredith bought the paper and shortened its name

Pennsylvania Gazette cont. Most successful in the colonies Ceased Publication around 1800s Later renamed as the Saturday Evening Post in 1821 Franklin not only printed the paper but often contributed pieces to the paper under aliases This newspaper printed the first political cartoon authored by Benjamin Franklin The Gazette printed local news, extracts from the London newspaper the "Spectator", jokes, verses, humorous attacks on Bradford's "Mercury”, a rival paper, moral essays by Benjamin, elaborate hoaxes, and political satire.

Pennsylvania Gazette cont. Position of each colony in the snake corresponds to the geographic position Published on May 9, 1754 Disunited state of the colonies Importance of colonial unity There was a superstition that a snake which had been cut into pieces would come back to life if the pieces were put together before sunset.