Newspaper Industry

Question 1

Three prominent facts abut newspapers

Answer 1

Declining number of newspapers:

Concentration

1. Chains or Networks
2. Cross Media Ownership
3. Joint Operating Agreements
4. Conglomerates

Fact Three: High Start-Up Costs

1830:
$5000
2021:
$100 million

Question 2

Four reasons for declining numbers of newspapers

Answer 2

1. Losing ad income to internet
2. Losing info and visual supremacy to internet
3. No of readers 18-30 are declining
4. Lack of business model for a digital age

Question 3

Media dinosaur thesis? Refutements and affirmations:

Answer 3

Refutes:

Change- saves newspapers
Nostalgia factor
Digitized newspapers
Verification of materials

Affirm:
Declining readership
Social media as competition
Start-up costs are high
High cost of papers
Advertisers are going to the internet
People’s attention span
Hard to recruit journalists

Question 4

Features of the Partisan Press Era (1630-1830)

Answer 4

The Partisan Press Era
A. Advocacy Journalism

B. No separation of news and
editorial comments

D. Dense prose on political and
economic topics

2 important legal/political cases:
John Peter Zenger Case: 1735: concept of seditious libel
Allen and Sedition Act- 1798
Question of prior restraint- could newspapers be stopped from publishing something ahead of time
1971 Pentagon papers case

Question 5

Features of Penny Press Era (1831-1880)

Answer 5

1. Newspapers went from 6¢ to 1¢ (became cheaper)
2. Improved technology—cylinder printing press
3. Shifted the cost of producing a paper to the
   advertiser

3 editors that dominated this era:
Benjamin Day- New York Sun
Hired newspaper boys to sell the paper
Reported on crime and gossip
Reported on “news” rather than analysis of ideas

James Gordon Bennett: New York Herald
Developed beat system (location that reporters return to e.g. wall street beat)
Developed financial pages of newspaper and sports reporting, Sunday edition

Greely
First to develop separate editorial page from news coverage
Built up a component staff

Significance of penny press era:
Invented concept of news- key development
- Facts, interviews, concentration on ordinary people, formula: accurate, timely, complete

Question 6

Features of Era of Yellow Journalism (181-1913)

Answer 6

Five characteristics:
1. Mass appeal
2. Inflammatory headlines
3. Emphasis on human interest and entertainment stories
4. Feature materials- e.g. Sunday supplements
5. Comic strips

2 editors that dominated the era:
Pulizer and Hearst

Good side: exposed graft and corruption

Bad side of the era: sensationalized news for its own sake- stunts and glorified accounts hut credibility

Question 7

3 characteristics of objective journalism?

Answer 7

1. Impartial news gathering
2. Separation of editorial and news
   commentary
3. Belief that every story has two sides

Question 8

NY times features?

Answer 8

1. Adolph Ochs purchased it 1896 on the verge of
   bankruptcy
2. Shunned popular features and comic strips
3. Sunday magazine with topics of significance
4. Full speeches and document
5. World War I was a turning point

Question 9

Features of New Journalism? 1966-2000

Answer 9

1. Rebellion against the standards of objective
   journalism
2. Fictionalized writing
3. Battle between OJ vs. NJ

Question 10

Points about the digital era (2000-present) Newspaper industry

Answer 10

1.Declining newspaper reading
2. Among 18-24 year old, only 27% read a newspaper
4. Digital connectivity will expand- 8 days a week
5. Concern for the monetization of newspapers:
6. Online distribution will become more sophisticated, will dev paywalls
7. News aggregation will mature
8. Blogs will continue to expand
9. Citizen journalism will expand- mainstream newspapers will rely on average citizen to spot the news via a format like Twitters
10. Reporters will provide analysis + perspective
11. Technological innovations
-Embedded videos in emails
-Enhanced portability
-Disappearance of time barriers
12. News orgs will adjust goals and methods:
- mainstream orgs will become aggregators and verifiers, validation of info becomes critical

Question 11

Policy issues related to newspapers?

Answer 11

1. Sensationalism—scare headlines; Tabloids
2. News Hole—hard vs. soft news
3. Substitutes and Alternatives—podcast; audio
   support group

Question 12

3 points from “The Dark Continent of American Journalism” article

Answer 12

1. Journalism is the first draft of
   history. It explains the
   who, what, where, when, how.
2. Journalists don’t do a good job on
   the “why” and the “how.” We leave that to the
   historians, sociologists, and political scientist. e.g. Diane Vaughn spent nine (9) years studying the Challenger
   Disaster—interviewing people for her theory—The
   Normalization of Deviance.
3. Ritualistic view of communication:
   Journalism’s most
   important function is the representation and celebration of shared understanding, values, belief

Transmission view: the under transmits info for a certain distance through a communciation channel to a receiver

Question 13

Carey’s view on communication: 3 takeaways

Answer 13

A symbolic process where
reality is produced, maintained, and repaired.

Heart of social
transformation.

Communciation breakdowns occur when
conversation is misinterpreted

Question 14

5 issues to confront in journalism:

Answer 14

Communication is a symbolic process where
reality is produced, maintained, and repaired.

Communication is at the heart of social
transformation.

Communication breakdowns occur when
conversation is misinterpreted