The Evolution Of Journalism In America. Essay, Research Paper

A Thousand Words

Several professions, some more tasteful than others, have been dubbed with the title The World s Oldest Profession . Among all in contention the winner must be found in communication. Each time an infant wails its way out of the womb it confirms the human drive to communicate. Tribal dance, cave paintings, scribes, and the town cryer are all predecessors to the modern journalist. We, as humans, have always had an obsession for the communication of knowledge, especially news events. Increasing levels of technology and education have changed the world of news reporting drastically in just over a century of time. Journalism has changed from the systematic notation of events, mainly for historical purposes, to a circus of current event thrillers downloaded live via satellite in vivid color to millions of boob tubes simultaneously. This essay will look at how the roles of journalism have changed and how they have changed the American public during the past century.

Newspapers and magazines were the reigning kings of the journalism industry in America up until Guglielmo Marconi s patented radio gained popularity the mid 1920 s. Journals were for the most part, reserved for the rich and well educated because illiteracy rates were so high not everyone could read them. But for that small portion of people who had access to them, the journals shaped how readers felt and what decisions they made about current and political events. Journalism became an official, if not so well paying, profession in 1908 with the opening of the first American school for journalism in Columbia, Missouri.

Competition has always been the driving force for news organizations. Within the progression of the field of photography, early Daguerreotypes proved a useful tool for publishers to increase circulation. Many people were drawn to the novelty of the new pictured papers, driving sales up. And better yet, partially literate people could pick up a paper and understand more about what was going on in the world.

Photo journalism started out as staged photos of important people because it took so long to expose the film that anything moving would not show up on the film at all. However, the last decade of the 19th Century brought with it better methods and America s first photojournalists . Photojournalism, is the industrial-strength version of photography, is an untidy collision of art, reportage and commercial publishing. (Eyewitness 7)

Increasing literacy rates and the invention of faster printing presses began to change the shift of papers from the upper class and educated elite, to the general public. The power of photojournalism was just being discovered and its ability to give large numbers of people the look and feel of important events, of freezing history for further inspection, was just beginning to be exploited. (Lacayo 7)

Radio started the American population s addiction to the immediacy of information. However, when it first started, many news flashes were done by news desk broadcasters that were only reading the news as it came off the wire. Also, the news wire services, controlled by the print media, were leery about radio and placed a limit on how much news information they were allowed to buy. Radio news didn t really take off until the first world war broke out and even then it kept an even pace with newspapers for a long time. Until increased technology developed, allowing on location radio broadcasts, the newspapers had an edge over radio. They had more news and they had pictures, something radio could never have.

But even in its weakest infancy, radio provided news to those who could not get it any other way. Radio helped to educated thousands of illiterates in current events and political and governmental topics. World war one had helped the spread of radio news casting as families tuned in nightly to hear news of their sons and fathers overseas. This was the first really big step to giving the general American public a real say so in American affairs, foreign and domestic. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proved the unifying power of the American radio when he viewed the widespread results commanded by his first fire side chat. In that historic speech, he gave the common man a lesson in banking and Americanism. The next day, when banks began opening from the National Bank Holiday, banks took in more money than they dispensed proving the power of the radio.

Expanded broadcasting and a boom in home radio purchases resulted in increased education on election day and a growing American public opinion for politicians to deal with. The more dangerous aspect of this immediate broadcasting is that, as the skill level and technology allowed for more live, on site broadcasts, the news events began to take on an exciting format that rivaled the radio dramas and mystery shows that had first boosted radio s popularity.

If photos and radio brought world events closer to home the rise of television landed the globe right in the American living room. Foreign lands were no longer mysterious hard to pronounce words on a sheet of paper, or outlines on a map. The topography and people of foreign lands came right into the American home in the form of pictures for the first time ever. The immediate satisfaction generation was born.

Before, people who were considered for politics were scientists and lawyers and educators and military greats. Television Blurred the lines between leaders and celebrities. (Interrupt Audio 13)

As television grew to what we know it now, the public could access all sorts of information and entertainment with the flick of a switch. The first live see-it-as-it-happens broadcast of a breaking news events was the Assassination of JFK Nov 22nd 1963. It was the first time that the people could see all the events from the shooting of the president to the death of Lee Harvey Oswald and the burial of both men. News took the American people on an emotional roller coaster ride.

Not only could people hear the news as it happened, but they could see the events as they unfolded. This was especially true of war time events. Before, photos of war usually were published after the atrocities had already happened and news on the front was delayed sometimes for days. But television allowed the horrors of war to be broadcast soon after they had taken place. It was the first time that a large amount of the general population was in a position to see war details as they developed.

This flood of easily attainable details lead the people to react. The American people spoke out, armed with their new found information, against the Vietnam war. The riots and demonstrations represented a new type of public power over the government that had never been seen before. It showed the government the power of the people to govern what events their government engaged in. They punished the government for engaging in a war they did not support with embarrassing demonstrations, draft dodging and lack of sympathy for returning veterans. In fact, television was the final cause of Johnson s declination of his bid for re-election. Walter Cronkite aired an expose stating that the aims of the Vietnam war were as not honorable as the government had reported. Johnson stated that if he has lost Cronkite, he had lost the American people. The statement was very true.

Nationwide media coverage caused a change in how politics operated and scandals and broken promises were much more likely to be detected with the spread of television. The Civil rights movement was the next main media event and a good example of this. The stakes were high for Alabama Governor George Wallace as he made the statement 1963, proclaimed segregation forever in his January inaugural address. The world was watching to see whether he would live up to his promise to uphold segregation. It is unarguable that the spying eyes of the entire American populace caused him to make his stand in the school house door in 1963 , to prevent the enrollment of two young black students, in front of the University of Alabama.

Rash counter events to breaking news stories continue to take place more frequently, the most violent and terrifying event, is undoubtedly the reaction to the Rodney King verdict. Followed closely by the Oklahoma City bombing which was stated to be a retribution for the Waco Texas standoff that ended in tragedy. Waco Texas was the first time Americans had seen an event like this on live television. The destruction of the compound sounded a call to arms to many other militia and religious groups.

Those news stories that were once found only in the pages of the National Enquirer, or the Sun are now broadcast on live TV sending the American people mixed messages as to what degrees of privacy the American people are really afforded. The O.J. Simpson trial mesmerized the nation. Everyone watched some portion of the trial and everyone had an opinion. It was the first criminal trial of its magnitude to be broadcast live over national television. It confirms the lack of control, or the lack of willingness to control what events are broadcast to the American People.

As television continues to reign as the form of news media that reaches the largest amount of people, it becomes a dangerous weapon. It has taken the place of traditional fashion magazines and is a mirror that controls America s self image. As levels of violence increases in the U.S. news journalists are now placed in a position to have to decide whether to censor some news events. With the recent Columbine School shootings in Colorado, talks of reducing coverage of these tragedies have sprung up. Some contest that kids and adults alike are committing violent crimes to have their 15 minutes of fame.

Television is a tool. If used well, by the general public, it can bring good into the world. However, when the majority of Americans use the television news as its only source of information it becomes dangerous. It is true that a picture speaks a thousand words, but pictures without a caption can be interpreted many ways. The American people must make the time to read the newspaper, a more detailed source of news information, before the medium becomes extinct. Television and radio have succeeded in rasing the political and social awareness of the country. However, if television becomes the only source of information it leaves the back door open for propaganda and political manipulation. News analysts, just like movie directors, are not presenting the official story, only their version of it in the time they have allotted. Besides, the book is almost always better than the movie even though it may have no pictures.

Bibliography

The American Magazine. Janello, Amy. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991.

The Century. Jennings, Peter. New York: Doubleday, 1998.

Eyewitness, 150 Years of Photojournalism. Lacayo, Richard. New York: Oxmoor House, 1990.

FDR, the Intimate Presidency. Molella, Arthur P. Washington: Smithsonian Institution,1982.

We Interrupt This Broadcast. Garner, Joe. Illinois: Sourcebooks, Inc., 1998.