Historical Development of Mass Communication in America
...se subjects and many more was apparent. Fifty years later, the newspaper Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestic appeared in Boston. This might have been the first American newspaper, but the government was displeased with the work of its publisher, Benjamin Harris, and banned subsequent editions. In 1704, John Campbellfs Boston News-Letter was published. It wasnft lively as Benjamin Harrisfs sheet, but wasnft as controversial either. It was the first American newspaper that was published for more than one issue. At the end of the eighteenth century, Newspapers both weekly and daily, could be found in most communities. They were small, often no more than four pages. The newspapers were financially supported through a small amount of commercial advertising, subscription revenues, and subsidies for political parties, the government, and other interested investors. This was a political or party press, a newspaper press deeply involved in the political lifeblood of the nation. By the end of the second decade of the new century the newspaper press was firmly established in the new nation. There were over 500 newspaper being published, 24 of then daily, the rest weekly and biweekly. Circulation was still relatively small, with the largest paper selling only about 4,000 copies per edition. In 1827, John B. Russwurm and the Reverend Samuel Cornish founded Freedomfs Journal in New York City, what most authorities regard as the nationfs first black newspaper. Benjamin Dayfs New York Sun was published in 1833. This was the first penny newspaper. The Sun cost less than other newspapers, five cents less than other newspapers. But more importantly, the Sun had substantially different content than its competitors. It was filled with news of crime and other tragedy, sensational events, trivial but interesting tidbits of information that appealed to the undereducated audiences at which this newspaper was aimed. In less than six months his newspaper had a circulation of nearly 8,000, twice that of his nearest competitor. This was the genesis of the popular press. Two years later, James Gordon Bennett, following Ben Dayfs formula, established the New York Herald. The paper cost two cents and at the outset Bennett told readers that his would not be a political newspaper. It was spicy, aggressive, and sensational. It was aimed at the common folk. And it contained quite a lot of advertising. In 1846, the New York State Associated Press was formed. Newspapers in 19 upstate New York cities now shared news via the telegraph. This was the precursor to the Associated Press, which is today the largest newsgathering organization in the world. In 4, about 2,600 daily newspapers were published during this year, more than ever before, more than at any time since then. The Gannett Corporation introduced USA Today, the nationfs first national newspaper in 1982. The paper is put together in Virginia, and finished pages are transmitted electronically by satellite to printing plants around the nation, By the end of the decade the new paper still had not show more than a gpaperh profit , but its bold color, strong emphasis on graphics, and short story-good news format had influenced daily newspapers across the nation. Magazine In 1711, Englishmen Richard Seele and Joseph Addison published the Tatler and the spectator, essay papers generally regarded as the first magazine published in Great Britain. 30 years later, Printers Andrew Bradford and Benjamin Franklin vied to publish the first American magazine. Bradfordfs American Magazine beat Franklinfs General Magazine, and Historical Chronicle off the presses by three days. But Franklin published six issues of his magazine, three more than Bradford. This experience was fairly typical for magazines in the 1700s. Several more appeared before 1800; most had a circulation of about 500 copies and lasted a year or less. Magazine of that era were generally digests of material that had been published first elsewhere, precursors of the modern Readerfs Digest. In 1922, Dewitt and Lila A. Wallace, seemingly taking their cue from the early American magazine publishers who put together their magazine with clippings from other periodicals, published the first edition of Readerfs Digest. The pocket-sized digest of condensed articles, first published in other magazine and newspapers, quickly grew to be one of the most successful magazines in the world. In 1923, Henry Luce, like the Wallaces, said he believed that while Americans were very interested in what was going on around them, they did not have the time to read a large number of magazine and newspapers and books. Luce gave us Time, a compartmentalized news magazine, and the first publication of what is now one of the worldfs largest media conglomerates, Time-Warner, Inc. By 1974 the last of the great, mass circulation general interest magazines like Colliers, Saturday Evening Post, Look, and Life had died. The decision made 70 years ago to rely primarily on advertising for revenue became fatal when advertisers switched to the newer and cheaper medium, television. People was the first successful national weekly magazine launched in 30 years. Time, Inc., the publisher, designed the magazine as a successful substitute for the scores pf celebrity-oriented movie and television magazine that were on the newsracks. The magazine was sold off racks in supermarkets and convenience stores, avoiding the high cost of postal delivery. It made a profit within 18 months, spawned a host of imitators, and pushed the more staid newsmagazines toward the softer side of journalism. Radio Radio developed as the idea of many men accumulated, men like James Maxwell, Heinrich Hertz, and Guglielmo Marconi. By 1910 it was possible for those few Americans with receivers to pick up occasional programs, as on January 14 when another pioneer of radio, Lee Deforest, put famed tenor Enrico Caruso on the air in a broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera. The broadcast was even reviewed by a critic for the New York Times who reported to readers that the ghomeless songwaves kept losing their way.h Radio and the use of the new medium had grown rapidly during World WarT. The first commercial interest in radio came from manufacturers of radio receivers----Westinghouse, General Electric, and American Marconi. Fearing a British monopoly, these companies, along with ration of American Telephone and Telegraph, pooled their patents to form the Radio corporation of America (RCA), the firm that would ultimately push the commercial development of the new broadcasting medium in the next decade. Toll broadcasting, what we now call radio advertising, was first attempted in August of 1922 over AT&T station WEAF in New York. It worked, as a Long Island realtor paid AT&T $100 for 10 minutes of broadcast time to tell listeners about available properties. In four years WEAF was grossing $750,000 annually in advertising revenue. Other station soon saw the advantage of this scheme, and radio advertising became commonplace. AT&T first linked two radio stations in 1923, WEAF in New York and WNAC in Boston, and established the nationfs first radio network. In 1926, AT&T decided to concentrate on telephones and get out of broadcasting. It sold its growing radio network to RCA, which had previously constructed an inferior but competing radio network. RCA now had two network and established a new subsidiary the National Broadcasting Company, to operate the broadcasting end of the business. By 1925 there were over 500 stations on the air. Congress adopted comprehensive legislation to regulate radio. Under the Radio Act of 1927 private ownership of stations would continue, but all broadcasters would have to be licensed, follow strict government technical performance standards, and use their stations to serve the public interest. An independent regulatory agency, the Federal Radio Commission, was named to supervise the control of the industry. And at the same year, a group of independent broadcasters founded a new radio network, the Columbia Broadcasting System. Radio programming became increasingly sophisticated during the 1920s and advertisers flocked to the new medium. They were given the opportunity to buy short advertising spots during programming carried\ed on the networks and local radio stations. In 1934, congress adopted the Communications Act of 1934, Which slightly modified the Radio Act of 1927 and created the Federal Communications commission to replace the Federal radio commission. By the end of the 1930s radio broadcasters, led by CBS News, began to gather and report the news on a regular basis. Things slowed down dramatically during World War U, and the nation turned its eyes toward more serious matters. The U.S. Justice department threatened antitrust action against NBC and forced it to sell one of its two radio networks. The network was sold to Edward J. Noble, founder and chairman of the Life Savers corporation and in 1944 acquired the name by which we now know it, the American Broadcasting Company. In 1948, as television began to catch fire the networks began to lose interest in their radio programming. This was the beginning of the end for big-tine, live entertainment oriented radio. Network radio hung on until the mid-1950s, but the revenues were siphoned off for use in television. Some said it was as if network radio was presiding at its own funeral. In 1960, FM radio had been around for almost as long as AM radio, but for many years it was not taken seriously as a commercial medium. Government action in the late 1950s and 1960s gave new life to the FM format. By the early 1970s nearly one-fourth of the listening audience tuned to FM stations. Today FM captures nearly 75 percent of all listeners. Motion Pictures In 1903, Edwin Porterfs The great Train Robbery is produced and released. The film, our first Western movie, marked the first time a filmmaker used editing techniques to make a motion picture. Until this time motion pictures were simply filmed live performances; the camera started with the beginning of action and stopped when the action ended. Porter cut his raw footage into pieces, and spliced them back together in a different order to tell the story. The art of film editing was born.. From 1912 to 1913, the motion picture business was beginning to boom and a growing number of talented and not-so-talented individuals sought to make films. David Wark Griffithfs The Birth of a Nation premiered in 1915 and established motion pictures as an art form. Sound movie would not be introduced to the public until 1927. But in 1923, Lee de Forest, the radio pioneer, began showing short experimental films that featured the voices as well as the picture of leading vaudeville performers. The major American movie studios were reaping big profits from the silent movies and were reluctant to make the large investment (both financial and creative) needed to produce sound films. Warner Bros., one of the smallest studios, released The Jazz Singer in 1927. The feature film had four sound musical numbers and a line of dialogue. The gtalkieh (of perhaps gsingieh) captured the fancy of the moviegoers, and Hollywood was forced to adopt the new sound technology. The boom year of the Hollywood motion picture studios began in the mid-1930s and lasted until the mid-century and the coming of television. The moguls that ran the dream factories in Southern California controlled the fantasy world of not only Americans, but of motion picture audiences around the world. The description on a motion picture, hMade in Hollywood,h became a mark of distinction to most moviegoers. More than 87 million people went to the movie each week in America in 1947, the highest box office attendance in the history ...