1. The History of American Media
Chapter 1: ‘Getting Started’

2. First, think about current status
Are journalists professional and unbiased?
Does Democracy work as people envisioned 200+ years ago?
Does ‘Journalism’ only mean newspaper people?
Do different media forms have different levels of quality?

3. Why Study History?
‘Learn from the past’
Are we good at doing that?

4. The Information Age
The amount of information available on-line is staggering.
Some of it is excellent—but some of it is junk
Somebody has to sort out all the information, make sense of it, organize it, judge it, and interpret it.
That person can be a journalist.

5. The Job of a Journalist Scan the environment
Pick out what is the most important to the most people
Gather Information
Weigh the facts
Take Pictures
Design Graphics
Make Decisions
Write, package and deliver stories

6. Skills Journalists Need
They need a broad education
They need to know about everything because that is what they cover—everything
They need people skills
They need language skills
They need multimedia skills

7. Journalist Fundamentals
Good sense
Good judgment
Good writing
Poise under pressure
Ethical and moral standards

8. Classic Standards for Journalists
Be fair
Get it right
Don’t expect the technology to do your work.
“The news does not gather itself.”
- Bob Mulholland, former NBC President

9. Before regular American publishing
Not a general support of democracy
Not a general assumption about forthcoming American independence
Both printing and learning were firmly controlled by the Roman Catholic Church during the early years of North American colonial development.

10. Early colonization
Meanwhile, the powerful elite of Europe that controlled the printing press also thought that the relatively low degree of literacy among workers and peasants vented “disobedience and heresy”
Elites were astonished by talks of ‘rights of man’ and grievances drawn up before the French Revolution began in 1789

11. Journalism and American History
Early newspapers printed essays that stirred the revolutionaries and that chronicled the historic break from England
Today journalists still help set the agenda. News vs. propaganda?
Journalists help a democratic nation make historic decisions by providing facts and opinions needed to elect the leaders who decide national policy.

12. YEAR: 1690
America's first newspaper, Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick, is published in Boston. The paper, able to fill only three of its four pages with text, suspends publication after one issue after drawing criticism from the colonial government.

13. America’s first newspapers
Did not look like the papers of today—they were usually one sheet and made up of letters, essays, etc.
Publick Occurrences was ‘the first newspaper.’ It was published in Boston in 1690 by Benjamin Harris.
It was ended by the government after one issue.

14. Benjamin Harris
Harris made no further attempt at newspaper publishing, but his influence in the colony was remarkable.
Came to Boston as a stranger; left it eight years later (back to England)…
…as the colony’s leading printer, book-seller, and coffeehouse proprietor, as well as the compiler and publisher of the most successful book of the eighteenth century in America.

15. Benjamin Harris
That was the New-England Primer, issued in the same year as his newspaper fiasco, and one of the truly remarkable volumes in publishing history.
Sometimes called “The Little Bible of New England,” … teaching tool for the secular alphabet and religious morality

16. Benjamin Harris
Continued to sell for nearly two centuries; profoundly influenced generations of Americans.
Laid the foundations for children’s literature in America.
Millions learned to read from it, and at the same time were indoctrinated by familiar rhymes (‘now I lay me down to sleep’)
The Primer was Harris’ lasting contribution to the media in America.

17. First Continually Published Paper
The Boston News-Letter, started by John Campbell in 1704
It was published “by authority”—it had the government’s approval
It was, however, not profitable

18. Postmaster to publisher
Campbell had been ‘authorized’ to publish by being postmaster
Refused to give up paper when his position as postmaster ended
William Brooker, as new postmaster started The Boston Gazette
James Franklin started his own paper after temporarily working for the Gazette: The New England Courant

19. Start of dissent
The New-England Courant was the first American newspaper worthy of the name.
For the first time, serious dissent against the ruling authority existed. Not yet political.
Dissenters were finding the iron rule of the Mathers, allied with the civil administrators, stifling to religious freedom.
For a century or more, the sermon-publishing business was dominated by that “great Mather copy-factory,” as one critic of he Mather family said at the time.

20. Still the Mathers…
It is hardly surprising that Cotton Mather found the Courant intolerable.
He dubbed its writers the “Hell-Fire Club,” and characterized them in terms that would make the language of latter-day authoritarians seem unimaginative.

21. Still the Mathers…
Cotton Mather declared passionately that “the practice of supporting and publishing every week a libel on purpose to lessen and blacken and burlesque the virtuous and principal ministers of religion in a country, and render the services of their ministry despicable, even detestable, to the people, is a wickedness that was never known before in any country, Christian, Turkish or Pagan, on the face of the earth.”

22. Brother, Benjamin Franklin
Some have called him “the first real newspaper editor in American history.”
Colonists were first introduced to Franklin by his “Silence Dogood” articles published in James Franklin’s New-England Courant.
Tired of the beatings he received as an indentured apprentice to his brother, he fled Boston for Philadelphia, and eventually established his own newspaper.

23. Brother, Benjamin Franklin
His Pennsylvania Gazette was the best edited, the most interesting, and the most profitable newspaper in the colonies.
He also could be sinister, or downright deceptive.
For example, in Philadelphia he successfully maneuvered to have one of his enemies ousted as clerk of the assembly and postmaster so he could be appointed.

24. Brother, Benjamin Franklin
He was happy to be known throughout his life as “B. Franklin, printer.”
He has been called America’s best philosopher, best inventor, best writer, best business strategist, and best diplomat. He believed that one could best serve God by serving his fellow man.
Stories you know about Ben Franklin…

25. TESTS OF PRESS FREEDOM
According to First Amendment scholar Leonard Levy, the persistent image of colonial America as a society in which freedom of expression was cherished is a hallucination of sentiment that ignores history.

26. TESTS OF PRESS FREEDOM
They just didn’t understand that freedom of thought and expression meant equal freedom for others, especially those with hated ideas.
This was evident in two of British America’s most celebrated cases involving William Bradford and John Peter Zenger.

27. Freedom of the Press
Early newspapers that criticized the government were guilty of sedition (the stirring of rebellion).
The truth of their statements was no defense.
In 1735, John Peter Zenger printed articles critical of the Governor William Cosby. He was arrested and thrown into jail.

28. Freedom of the Press
Because Zenger printed attacks on the British crown, he was guilty of libel, even if the statements were true.
Andrew Hamilton defended him and appealed to the jury that everyone has the right to speak and write freely—as long as it is the truth.
The jurors deliberated briefly and found Zenger not guilty.

29. The Birth of the Nation
The Zenger trial fanned the flames of freedom that were beginning to burn in the colonies.
By 1775, when the Revolution began, 37 newspapers were being published
They backed the Revolution and printed the cries to battle that rallied the rebels.
Some say there would not have been a Revolution without the support of the press.

30. The Birth of the Nation
In those days the recognized principle was, “The greater the truth, the greater the libel.”
The verdict did not have any immediate effect on the law.
Truth as a defense was not recognized generally in America until 1804.

31. The Birth of a Nation
When the Revolutionary War ended, the framers of the Constitution did not spend much time on freedom of the press, because most states already covered the matter.
However, the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791.
In it, the First Amendment guaranteed the freedom of the press. (why 1st?)

32. The Birth of a Nation
After the Revolution, the nation grew rapidly, and so did the newspaper industry.
The first student newspaper, The Students Gazette, was founded in Pennsylvania, in 1777.
The first daily, The Pennsylvania Post, was founded in 1783.

33. Upcoming: The Penny Press
Early papers had little actual news, but in 1833, Benjamin Day founded the New York Sun and filled it with news and sold it for only a penny.
Day’s staff covered the police beat, wrote about tragedies and natural disasters, and toned down the opinions.
This was the “penny press” and was the forerunner of today’s newspapers.

34. Chapter One Facts & Review
Next…

35. He was the first printer in the new world to publish something that looked like a newspaper.
Banjamin Harris

36. This newspaper arrived on the scene at a time of serious dissent against ruling authority and fueled the flames against them:
New England Courant

37. Which of these resulted from the John Peter Zenger verdict: (a) truth became a complete defense in libel suits (b) fair comment and criticism was established for the first time c) qualified privilege was introduced d) freedom of the press was established in America
None of those

38. What was Cotton Mather's description of the Courant?
Hell-fire Club

39. He was the first printer in the new world to publish something that looked like a newspaper.
Banjamin Harris

40. What early newpaper writer signed himself "Silence Dogood":
Banjamin Franklin

41. His New-England Primer was the most successful book in the colonies:
Banjamin Harris

42. Mary Katherine Goddard
She printed the first official copy of the Declaration of Independence.
Mary Katherine Goddard

43. Who ran John Peter Zenger’s newspaper during the nine months he was in prison awaiting trial?
His wife: Anna Zenger

44. T or F: Journalism was one of the first occupations open to respectable women
True
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