Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world.
Globalization is not new, though. For thousands of years, people—and, later, corporations—have been buying from and selling to each other in lands at great distances, such as through the famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe during the Middle Ages. Likewise, for centuries, people and corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries. In fact, many of the features of the current wave of globalization are similar to those prevailing before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
But policy and technological developments of the past few decades have spurred increases in cross-border trade, investment, and migration so large that many observers believe the world has entered a qualitatively new phase in its economic development. Since 1950, for example, the volume of world trade has increased by 20 times, and from just 1997 to 1999 flows of foreign investment nearly doubled, from $468 billion to $827 billion. Distinguishing this current wave of globalization from earlier ones, author Thomas Friedman has said that today globalization is “farther, faster, cheaper, and deeper.”
This current wave of globalization has been driven by policies that have opened economies domestically and internationally. In the years since the Second World War, and especially during the past two decades, many governments have adopted free-market economic systems, vastly increasing their own productive potential and creating myriad new opportunities for international trade and investment. Governments also have negotiated dramatic reductions in barriers to commerce and have established international agreements to promote trade in goods, services, and investment. Taking advantage of new opportunities in foreign markets, corporations have built foreign factories and established production and marketing arrangements with foreign partners. A defining feature of globalization, therefore, is an international industrial and financial business structure.
Technology has been the other principal driver of globalization. Advances in information technology, in particular, have dramatically transformed economic life. Information technologies have given all sorts of individual economic actors—consumers, investors, businesses—valuable new tools for identifying and pursuing economic opportunities, including faster and more informed analyses of economic trends around the world, easy transfers of assets, and collaboration with far-flung partners.
Globalization is deeply controversial, however. Proponents of globalization argue that it allows poor countries and their citizens to develop economically and raise their standards of living, while opponents of globalization claim that the creation of an unfettered international free market has benefited multinational corporations in the Western world at the expense of local enterprises, local cultures, and common people. Resistance to globalization has therefore taken shape both at a popular and at a governmental level as people and governments try to manage the flow of capital, labor, goods, and ideas that constitute the current wave of globalization.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Culture of journalism
The practice of journalism has developed a culture of its own. That culture has expectations of professionals and non-professionals who would engage in journalistic endeavors. Understanding that culture is the point of this chapter.
Journalism is traditionally practiced through news organizations such as newspapers, broadcasting stations or news web sites. These organizations have their individual modes of operations and cultural expectations, but they are part of a larger culture in which the profession is practiced.
Despite its special place in legal and political arenas, journalism is still an economic enterprise. Journalistic organizations must make a profit to survive. Most do - and a very healthy profit, at that.
Key to understanding the culture of journalism are the concepts of honesty, objectivity, persistence and competition. Journalists must approach their jobs with an honest frame of mind, seeing what they do as a public service rather than as a way of making money.
Cultural norms. Journalists do not work alone. They are part of a larger culture that has its conventions and norms. It's important to understand some of these cultural norms:
Objectivity and fairness. This is a much debated idea. Can anyone be truly objective? Probably not, but journalists still have the obligation to consider many sides of an issue and to question how people will react to their presentation of information.
Accuracy. The chief goal of the journalist is to present accurate information in an accurate context so that people will understand it as the journalist understands it. Much of the reporting, editing and production process of journalism is directed to ensuring that accurate information is the consistent product of the media. This goal, too, is an ideal. Often inaccurate information in an inaccurate context is produced by the journalist. The goal, however, never changes.
Attention to detail. Part of the accuracy mantra is attention to detail. Reporters must check the spelling of every name they use; they must be exact in the wording of direct quotations; they must often confirm what they think they know or what they have heard with other, reliable sources. Because many people will read or hear what they report, they can leave very little to chance.
Mix of individual and corporate effort. Reporters understand that while much of their effort is individual, they represent a news organization that in itself has certain values and objectives. Reporters must balance their loyalties to their employers, their profession and their personal beliefs. In most cases, there is no conflict among these, but occasionally there is.
Deadlines. Print reporters lack two things: time and space. Broadcast reporters lack time and time. In both cases, the first "time" refers to the lack of time to do a story as completely as they would like. Deadlines always intrude on a reporter's work. In the print media, presses must roll at certain times of the day or night, and the work of the journalist must be finished for that to happen. In broadcasting, deadlines are even more arbitrary. They occur when the newscast begins, and they cannot be wished away. In both cases, reporters often have to "go with what they have" rather than taking the time to be more complete or thorough.
Skepticism. Journalists attempt never to be gullible. They do not want to be taken in by those who give them false information. At the same time, they should not be cynical, disbelieving everything that is said to them. Instead, they should always be willing to question their source and check what they have against other information they might receive.
Sense of "greater good." Reporters generally believe they are in journalism for a reason other than making money or making a living or even for satisfying their personal desires. They generally hold to the belief that good information is good for society; that sharing that information helps society function.
Journalism is traditionally practiced through news organizations such as newspapers, broadcasting stations or news web sites. These organizations have their individual modes of operations and cultural expectations, but they are part of a larger culture in which the profession is practiced.
Despite its special place in legal and political arenas, journalism is still an economic enterprise. Journalistic organizations must make a profit to survive. Most do - and a very healthy profit, at that.
Key to understanding the culture of journalism are the concepts of honesty, objectivity, persistence and competition. Journalists must approach their jobs with an honest frame of mind, seeing what they do as a public service rather than as a way of making money.
Cultural norms. Journalists do not work alone. They are part of a larger culture that has its conventions and norms. It's important to understand some of these cultural norms:
Objectivity and fairness. This is a much debated idea. Can anyone be truly objective? Probably not, but journalists still have the obligation to consider many sides of an issue and to question how people will react to their presentation of information.
Accuracy. The chief goal of the journalist is to present accurate information in an accurate context so that people will understand it as the journalist understands it. Much of the reporting, editing and production process of journalism is directed to ensuring that accurate information is the consistent product of the media. This goal, too, is an ideal. Often inaccurate information in an inaccurate context is produced by the journalist. The goal, however, never changes.
Attention to detail. Part of the accuracy mantra is attention to detail. Reporters must check the spelling of every name they use; they must be exact in the wording of direct quotations; they must often confirm what they think they know or what they have heard with other, reliable sources. Because many people will read or hear what they report, they can leave very little to chance.
Mix of individual and corporate effort. Reporters understand that while much of their effort is individual, they represent a news organization that in itself has certain values and objectives. Reporters must balance their loyalties to their employers, their profession and their personal beliefs. In most cases, there is no conflict among these, but occasionally there is.
Deadlines. Print reporters lack two things: time and space. Broadcast reporters lack time and time. In both cases, the first "time" refers to the lack of time to do a story as completely as they would like. Deadlines always intrude on a reporter's work. In the print media, presses must roll at certain times of the day or night, and the work of the journalist must be finished for that to happen. In broadcasting, deadlines are even more arbitrary. They occur when the newscast begins, and they cannot be wished away. In both cases, reporters often have to "go with what they have" rather than taking the time to be more complete or thorough.
Skepticism. Journalists attempt never to be gullible. They do not want to be taken in by those who give them false information. At the same time, they should not be cynical, disbelieving everything that is said to them. Instead, they should always be willing to question their source and check what they have against other information they might receive.
Sense of "greater good." Reporters generally believe they are in journalism for a reason other than making money or making a living or even for satisfying their personal desires. They generally hold to the belief that good information is good for society; that sharing that information helps society function.
Journalism: business or public service?
Journalism, ideally is supposed to serve the public interest through fair and honest news coverage. Journalism is about presenting information in an objective way and that constitutes the core purpose of journalism.
Elements of good journalism
• Providing information that the public needs to know.
Many publications are devoted solely to information that the public wants to know; fashion and celebrity gossip magazines are good examples of this. Ideally, however, journalists strive to write less sensational stories because they are important for readers to know about. Code of Ethics emphasizes that good news judgment includes publishing stories because "the people must be well informed in order to make decisions regarding their lives, and their local and national communities."
• Giving a fair and truthful account of news. There is a great deal of talk about bias in the media. Many journalists believe that if a publication is being criticized for being too liberal by some and too conservative by others, it is doing a good job. On its Web site, the Associated Press defines fair and truthful as "reliability and objectivity with reports that are accurate, balanced and informed."
• Spurring people to action. Swanson said journalism is a service-oriented profession because journalism "isn't just about providing raw information. It's telling them how to use it to improve their lives and inspiring them to want to."
• Emphasizing the importance of free speech. Journalists define freedom of speech and of the press in very broad terms. Many journalists have an absolutist approach to discussing free speech, meaning that they believe no limits whatsoever on speech should be imposed. Free speech and a free press are essential for journalism to exist the way it does in this country, able to criticize the government and conduct investigations. In its mission statement, SPJ refers to freedom of speech and of the press as "the cornerstone of our nation and our liberty."
• Having courage. Ugland said objectivity is often stressed as the key principle for journalists to live by, but they must have courage to even attempt being objective. "There are a lot of journalists who think that if they quote three Republican sources and three Democratic sourses, their stories are per se objective," Ugland said. "But all this does is simplify the issue and reinforce the shallow Red-Blue framework that has infected our public discourse." He said true objectivity requires the courage to go beyond two-sided, pro-con approaches and tell all sides of a story -- even if it angers those in power.
Leading Theories in Journalism
• One of the major problems facing contemporary journalism surrounds how the purpose of the discipline should be defined. There are two conflicting theories about this:
• Journalism is primarily a business. This theory is the more practical of the two ways of looking at journalism today. It states that journalism must make money to stay afloat and continue providing the news. This theory can be understood by looking at the case of the L.A. Times in the early 1990s. The Times had been sending special sections to suburbs of L.A. for years; it neglected, however, to cover the central city after which the paper was named. In 1992, it added a special section called City Times for residents of the inner city. When a new CEO took over in 1997, he deemed the section unprofitable, arguing that the paper would possibly have to close and thus cease producing news at all if it continued to print a section that was not being read.
• Journalism is primarily a public service. This is the more idealistic theory used for defining contemporary journalism. Many journalists believe that they serve a greater good than can be measured by any type of bottom line. The SPJ Code of Ethics states that "Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty." This emphasis on "serving the public" in this theory means that news outlets should not become more concerned about gaining advertisers than gaining the public's trust.
Problems Currently Facing Journalists
• They are a dying breed." Ugland used this phrase to describe journalists. He said an increasing number of students are choosing to enter other communications-related fields like advertising and public relations because they are more profitable professions. The trends of blogging and online news sources are also taking potential jobs away from journalists because many people do not get their information from traditional sources like newspapers anymore. This leads potential journalism majors to believe that they will not have jobs upon graduation, and as a result, Ugland said there has been a "brain drain away from journalism schools and toward programs like medicine and law."
• Media consolidation. In recent years, media outlets have become increasingly controlled by a few large corporations. Major companies that are not necessarily media-related are beginning to own media outlets in larger numbers. A prominent example of this is NBC, which is owned by General Electric. Ugland said media consolidation poses problems for journalism because the fewer independent news organizations there are, the fewer people who are in control of information disseminated to the public. Too much media consolidation could lead to having only a few companies using various media outlets
Elements of good journalism
• Providing information that the public needs to know.
Many publications are devoted solely to information that the public wants to know; fashion and celebrity gossip magazines are good examples of this. Ideally, however, journalists strive to write less sensational stories because they are important for readers to know about. Code of Ethics emphasizes that good news judgment includes publishing stories because "the people must be well informed in order to make decisions regarding their lives, and their local and national communities."
• Giving a fair and truthful account of news. There is a great deal of talk about bias in the media. Many journalists believe that if a publication is being criticized for being too liberal by some and too conservative by others, it is doing a good job. On its Web site, the Associated Press defines fair and truthful as "reliability and objectivity with reports that are accurate, balanced and informed."
• Spurring people to action. Swanson said journalism is a service-oriented profession because journalism "isn't just about providing raw information. It's telling them how to use it to improve their lives and inspiring them to want to."
• Emphasizing the importance of free speech. Journalists define freedom of speech and of the press in very broad terms. Many journalists have an absolutist approach to discussing free speech, meaning that they believe no limits whatsoever on speech should be imposed. Free speech and a free press are essential for journalism to exist the way it does in this country, able to criticize the government and conduct investigations. In its mission statement, SPJ refers to freedom of speech and of the press as "the cornerstone of our nation and our liberty."
• Having courage. Ugland said objectivity is often stressed as the key principle for journalists to live by, but they must have courage to even attempt being objective. "There are a lot of journalists who think that if they quote three Republican sources and three Democratic sourses, their stories are per se objective," Ugland said. "But all this does is simplify the issue and reinforce the shallow Red-Blue framework that has infected our public discourse." He said true objectivity requires the courage to go beyond two-sided, pro-con approaches and tell all sides of a story -- even if it angers those in power.
Leading Theories in Journalism
• One of the major problems facing contemporary journalism surrounds how the purpose of the discipline should be defined. There are two conflicting theories about this:
• Journalism is primarily a business. This theory is the more practical of the two ways of looking at journalism today. It states that journalism must make money to stay afloat and continue providing the news. This theory can be understood by looking at the case of the L.A. Times in the early 1990s. The Times had been sending special sections to suburbs of L.A. for years; it neglected, however, to cover the central city after which the paper was named. In 1992, it added a special section called City Times for residents of the inner city. When a new CEO took over in 1997, he deemed the section unprofitable, arguing that the paper would possibly have to close and thus cease producing news at all if it continued to print a section that was not being read.
• Journalism is primarily a public service. This is the more idealistic theory used for defining contemporary journalism. Many journalists believe that they serve a greater good than can be measured by any type of bottom line. The SPJ Code of Ethics states that "Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty." This emphasis on "serving the public" in this theory means that news outlets should not become more concerned about gaining advertisers than gaining the public's trust.
Problems Currently Facing Journalists
• They are a dying breed." Ugland used this phrase to describe journalists. He said an increasing number of students are choosing to enter other communications-related fields like advertising and public relations because they are more profitable professions. The trends of blogging and online news sources are also taking potential jobs away from journalists because many people do not get their information from traditional sources like newspapers anymore. This leads potential journalism majors to believe that they will not have jobs upon graduation, and as a result, Ugland said there has been a "brain drain away from journalism schools and toward programs like medicine and law."
• Media consolidation. In recent years, media outlets have become increasingly controlled by a few large corporations. Major companies that are not necessarily media-related are beginning to own media outlets in larger numbers. A prominent example of this is NBC, which is owned by General Electric. Ugland said media consolidation poses problems for journalism because the fewer independent news organizations there are, the fewer people who are in control of information disseminated to the public. Too much media consolidation could lead to having only a few companies using various media outlets
Muckrackers Movement
The term "muckraker" was taken from the fictional character in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, a man who was consigned to rake muck endlessly, never lifting his eyes from his drudgery.
People in the United States had long been displeased with the unsafe conditions, political corruption and social injustice of the industrial age, but it was not until the late 19th century that the proliferation of cheap newspapers and magazines galvanized widespread opposition. Writers directed their criticisms against the trusts (oil, beef and tobacco), prison conditions, exploitation of natural resources, the tax system, the insurance industry, pension practices and food processing, among others.
Theodore Roosevelt, however, became angry when he read a bitter indictment of the political corruption of the day. The president, clearly one of the most fervent reformers, believed that some of the writers were going too far, and cited the muckraker image in a speech criticizing the excesses of investigative journalism. The writers, many of whom had been Roosevelt's ardent supporters, harshly criticized him for apparently deserting their cause.
Originally used in a pejorative sense, the term muckraker soon developed a positive connotation in the public mind. Leading writers of this genre included:
* Lincoln Steffens, an investigator of corruption in state and municipal governments, published Shame of the Cities in 1904
* Edwin Markham published an exposé of child labor in Children in Bondage (1914)
* Jacob Riis depicted the misery of New York City slums in How the Other Half Lives (1890), an early advocacy of urban renewal
* Ida Tarbell wrote a series of magazine articles detailing the business practices of Standard Oil, which appeared in McClure's and later were published in book form as The History of the Standard Oil Company (1904)
* David Graham Phillips' Cosmopolitan article, "The Treason of the Senate," a bitter indictment of political corruption, provoked President Roosevelt's wrath, but created momentum that would culminate in the adoption of the 17th Amendment
* Henry Demarest Lloyd's Wealth against Commonwealth (1894) chronicled the rise of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil
* Ray Stannard Baker examined the sad state of race relations in America in Following the Color Line (1908)
* Brand Whitlock expressed his opposition to capital punishment in the novel The Turn of the Balance (1907), while serving as the reform mayor of Toledo, Ohio
* Samuel Hopkins Adams won fame from his muckraking exposés of the patent medicine industry
* Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906) was largely responsible for federal legislation regulating food and drug practices; he was later a failed Socialist political candidate, a founder of the American Civil Liberties Association, a prolific fiction writer and Pulitzer Prize winner.
Public interest in the writings of the muckrakers began to wane around 1910; however, the momentum they created would continue to influence legislation for many more years.
People in the United States had long been displeased with the unsafe conditions, political corruption and social injustice of the industrial age, but it was not until the late 19th century that the proliferation of cheap newspapers and magazines galvanized widespread opposition. Writers directed their criticisms against the trusts (oil, beef and tobacco), prison conditions, exploitation of natural resources, the tax system, the insurance industry, pension practices and food processing, among others.
Theodore Roosevelt, however, became angry when he read a bitter indictment of the political corruption of the day. The president, clearly one of the most fervent reformers, believed that some of the writers were going too far, and cited the muckraker image in a speech criticizing the excesses of investigative journalism. The writers, many of whom had been Roosevelt's ardent supporters, harshly criticized him for apparently deserting their cause.
Originally used in a pejorative sense, the term muckraker soon developed a positive connotation in the public mind. Leading writers of this genre included:
* Lincoln Steffens, an investigator of corruption in state and municipal governments, published Shame of the Cities in 1904
* Edwin Markham published an exposé of child labor in Children in Bondage (1914)
* Jacob Riis depicted the misery of New York City slums in How the Other Half Lives (1890), an early advocacy of urban renewal
* Ida Tarbell wrote a series of magazine articles detailing the business practices of Standard Oil, which appeared in McClure's and later were published in book form as The History of the Standard Oil Company (1904)
* David Graham Phillips' Cosmopolitan article, "The Treason of the Senate," a bitter indictment of political corruption, provoked President Roosevelt's wrath, but created momentum that would culminate in the adoption of the 17th Amendment
* Henry Demarest Lloyd's Wealth against Commonwealth (1894) chronicled the rise of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil
* Ray Stannard Baker examined the sad state of race relations in America in Following the Color Line (1908)
* Brand Whitlock expressed his opposition to capital punishment in the novel The Turn of the Balance (1907), while serving as the reform mayor of Toledo, Ohio
* Samuel Hopkins Adams won fame from his muckraking exposés of the patent medicine industry
* Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906) was largely responsible for federal legislation regulating food and drug practices; he was later a failed Socialist political candidate, a founder of the American Civil Liberties Association, a prolific fiction writer and Pulitzer Prize winner.
Public interest in the writings of the muckrakers began to wane around 1910; however, the momentum they created would continue to influence legislation for many more years.
The Founding of the Associated Press
The Founding of the Associated Press
By Rick Brown
Editor-in-Chief
Ten men, representing the six most important New York newspapers at the time, sat around a table in the office of the New York Sun one day early in May, 1848. They had been in session for more than an hour and all that time they had been in stubborn argument. Some of them were belligerent, some were conciliatory, some were unconcerned, some were worried. They were the autocrats of the city's newspaper world and one room never had been big enough before to hold them.
James Gordon Bennett was there with his assistant, Frederick Hudson, for the New York Herald. Webb attended with his managing editor, Henry Raymond, of the Courier and Enquirer, Gerald Hallock and Hale represented the Journal of Commerce, Horace Greeley of the Tribune, Moses Beach, publisher of the Sun, and Eustace and James Brooks of the Express completed the ten.
The meeting was the outcome of Hale's efforts over a period of months to bring the competing publishers together. He and Bennett had been pleased with the success of the co-operative effort which grew out of their meeting the year before, and Hale gradually had come to see a possible union of the foremost New York Newspapers, each contributing its share to a general fund which could be used in a concerted effort to provide readers with wider coverage of all important world events. Now at the critical moment of his campaign he was tired and ill. He knew how difficult it would be to persuade the news titans to forget their antagonisms in the interests of the common good. But he faced the meeting and talked of news, its problems, and his proposal. There was plenty of news to talk about. In Europe there were revolutions in progress and others brewing. At home the Mexican War was over, but the drums of another presidential campaign were beating for the war heroes, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. The antislavery movement was growing daily; out in the wilderness of Utah the Mormons were establishing themselves on the shores of Salt Lake, and from Chicago the railroad was pushing slowly into the West.
But, aside from Hale and Bennett, the overlords of the New York press were suspicious and reluctant. Hale outlined his plan and saw marked signs of resentment. The rival publishers had not been pleased at the stories of the Herald and Journal of Commerce through the co-operative efforts. There were gruff questions and vigorous dissent. James Watson Webb heard the plan through impatiently and reared to his feet. he had never forgiven Hale for breaking the harbor news monopoly with his sailboat years before, and he never would forgive Bennett for violating established newspaper practice by publishing a penny paper which gave the readers more than they paid for. His Courier and Enquirer, he said, never would join any association which contained Bennett and his Herald. He accused Hale and Bennett of concocting a scheme which had been so costly that they were now trying to bamboozle other into paying the bill. Puffing and angry, he turned to Henry Raymond for approval only to find Raymond's attention fixed on Hale, who had picked up the interrupted discussion.
Hale turned patiently to another phase of the problem. The situation on telegraph news was highly complicated. Each paper arranged for this news independently and paid the full rate to the company. There was only one wire available to serve all the New York papers and it had its terminus across the Hudson River on the New Jersey shore. The papers had to take fifteen minute turns on the facilities, and all but the first in line were out of luck. News was read aloud from the crude Morse ticker to a representative of the receiving paper and there was deliberate eavesdropping and pilfering. The telegraph companies were in a precarious position because of their own competitive struggle and consequently they charged every penny the traffic would bear.
Although telegraph news was already expensive, Hale warned it might even become more costly. It was common knowledge that the telegraph companies were selling news from their various offices to anyone in spite of the fact that it had been gathered by representatives of the papers themselves. Hale also had been reliability informed that certain wire enterprises were secretly toying with the idea of setting up regular subsidiary organizations to gather and transmit news for sale. The dangers were obvious; with no governmental supervision, the telegraph companies would make it virtually impossible for any news but their own to move on limited wire facilities. Papers would be forced to surrender the vital function of news gathering and news itself would be reduced to a purely commercial and unreliable commodity dished up for a price by outsiders on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.
As Hale concluded, Webb was drawn aside from the group by his able assistant, Raymond, who founded the New York Times three years afterward, was convinced of the wisdom of the proposal Hale had just made. A few minutes later the old stalwart of the Courier and Enquirer returned to the table and one glance told Hale and the others that the battle was over.
So in the Sun office in May, 1848, the first real co-operative news gathering organization was formed. Its concept was limited and largely selfish. There was no immediate thought of benefiting any but these six papers and there was no disposition to look upon the collection of news as a great public service. The organization was by no means all that it might have been, but it was a beginning.
They called it the Associated Press.
The first step taken by the new organization was to perfect operating procedures. Hallock was named president and the office of "general agent" was created. The man to fill this job would be responsible for actively collecting and and distributing the news. A committee was immediately formed to supervise the first news gathering efforts. Frederick Hudson, Bennett's editorial right-hand man, and Raymond, the managing editor of Webb's Courier and Enquirer, were the two men selected. The committee quickly began functioning. First it arranged for the carter of the steamer Buena Vista at Halifax to intercept all European boats, obtain what news they brought and rush it on to Boston, the northernmost terminus of the telegraph. Then it began negotiating with the wire company to secure precedence for the transmission of this news to New York at attractive rates. Raymond outlined what was needed in a letter on May 13, 1848, to F. O. J. Smith, a tight-fisted promoter then in charge of the Boston-New York telegraph line.
Smith realized the increased business such an arrangement would bring and two days later he outlined a plan, quoting tolls. Raymond confirmed the contract on May 1. As the spring days moved on into another summer, it became obvious that Raymond had had definite plans in mind when he mentioned to Smith the possibility of forwarding news to other papers. The Philadelphia Public Ledger and the Baltimore Sun began receiving the dispatches. They were not members of the Associated Press. The New York organization restricted that privilege but they were its first paying clients. As the association grew the profitable practice of selling news to outside papers was greatly expanded.
Once the channel was clear for foreign intelligence, the committee turned its attention to news at home. Already there were independent "telegraph reporters" scattered throughout the country who wrote and transmitted copy to any newspaper that would buy. The system under which they operated was unsatisfactory. There was now a need for a man who was familiar with the free-lance sources as well as the general operation of the telegraph. The Association found the man for its general agent in Dr. Alexander Jones, a graduate in medicine whose early interest in communications had lured him into journalism. He had been a news gatherer on both sides of the Atlantic and he had devised the first cipher code to effect savings in telegraph bills.
Jones opened a simple office at the top of a long flight of seventy-eight stairs at the northwest corner of Broadway and Liberty Street. This served as headquarters of The Associated Press for more than two decades. The annual rental was less than $500 and the weekly administrative expense was less than $50. The general agent's salary was $20 a week and the entire cost of operations the first year was between $10,000 and $20,000. Payment for foreign news was the largest single item.
At first the entire New York staff consisted of Jones and one assistant, but later a second assistant was added. Trained, capable men were few and those available needed months of training. Besides his work in New York, Jones was kept busy engaging correspondents, or "agents" as they were called, to obtain and telegraph news to New York. The major duties of the general agent were to receive and distribute the intelligence received from these men, to pay telegraph tolls and other necessary expenses to conduct the business, and to see collections from the six member newspapers and hinterland clients. Sufficient copies of each incoming dispatch were made on manifold tissue paper to cover the list of subscribers.
The great rush was on to California and fantastic tales of fortunes in gold trickled overland to the east. But gold was only one story. The Associated Press covered its first presidential campaign; a Women's Rights Convention at Rochester demanded suffrage; President Polk offered to buy Cuba for $100,000,000; Garibaldi's red shirts battled the French, the King of Prussia became the hereditary emperor of the Germans. The New York terminus of the telegraph line was still in New Jersey ‹ the problem of bridging wide rivers baffled the wire companies and General Agent Jones intended to get the news from the Whig National Presidential Nominating Convention being held in Philadelphia across the Hudson as fast as possible. Flag signals, he decided, would do it. He went to Jersey City himself to make sure there would be no slip-up. At the pier near the Cortland Street Ferry on the New York side he stationed a boy from the Courier and Enquirer. The youngster had careful instructions. A white flag said Taylor; a red, Clay. Two white flags on the same staff meant Scott, and two reds meant McLean had been nominated.
Forty minutes after Jones crossed the river, the boy saw a white flag being waved vigorously from the New Jersey side. he raced off to notify the New York papers that General Taylor had been nominated. The news fled north along the telegraph to New England arousing great excitement. Unfortunately the signal the boy had seen was the white flag of a broker's representative in New Jersey wigwagging the latest Philadelphia stock quotations to a lookout on the Merchant's Exchange building in New York. Fortunately, Taylor was nominated the next day.
Coverage of the election was an epochal thing. it cost more than $1,000-- an awesome amount in 1848 - to report General Taylor's election. For the first time telegraph offices remained open all night. Dr. Jones went seventy-two hours without sleep before the story was finished.
Everything considered, the organization was off to a good start, but the man who began it did not live to see The Associated Press through its first crucial years. Hardly a month after the meeting in the Sun's office, David Hale had a stroke. He regained strength for a time but in January, 1849 death came to the pioneer of co-operative news gathering.
By Rick Brown
Editor-in-Chief
Ten men, representing the six most important New York newspapers at the time, sat around a table in the office of the New York Sun one day early in May, 1848. They had been in session for more than an hour and all that time they had been in stubborn argument. Some of them were belligerent, some were conciliatory, some were unconcerned, some were worried. They were the autocrats of the city's newspaper world and one room never had been big enough before to hold them.
James Gordon Bennett was there with his assistant, Frederick Hudson, for the New York Herald. Webb attended with his managing editor, Henry Raymond, of the Courier and Enquirer, Gerald Hallock and Hale represented the Journal of Commerce, Horace Greeley of the Tribune, Moses Beach, publisher of the Sun, and Eustace and James Brooks of the Express completed the ten.
The meeting was the outcome of Hale's efforts over a period of months to bring the competing publishers together. He and Bennett had been pleased with the success of the co-operative effort which grew out of their meeting the year before, and Hale gradually had come to see a possible union of the foremost New York Newspapers, each contributing its share to a general fund which could be used in a concerted effort to provide readers with wider coverage of all important world events. Now at the critical moment of his campaign he was tired and ill. He knew how difficult it would be to persuade the news titans to forget their antagonisms in the interests of the common good. But he faced the meeting and talked of news, its problems, and his proposal. There was plenty of news to talk about. In Europe there were revolutions in progress and others brewing. At home the Mexican War was over, but the drums of another presidential campaign were beating for the war heroes, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. The antislavery movement was growing daily; out in the wilderness of Utah the Mormons were establishing themselves on the shores of Salt Lake, and from Chicago the railroad was pushing slowly into the West.
But, aside from Hale and Bennett, the overlords of the New York press were suspicious and reluctant. Hale outlined his plan and saw marked signs of resentment. The rival publishers had not been pleased at the stories of the Herald and Journal of Commerce through the co-operative efforts. There were gruff questions and vigorous dissent. James Watson Webb heard the plan through impatiently and reared to his feet. he had never forgiven Hale for breaking the harbor news monopoly with his sailboat years before, and he never would forgive Bennett for violating established newspaper practice by publishing a penny paper which gave the readers more than they paid for. His Courier and Enquirer, he said, never would join any association which contained Bennett and his Herald. He accused Hale and Bennett of concocting a scheme which had been so costly that they were now trying to bamboozle other into paying the bill. Puffing and angry, he turned to Henry Raymond for approval only to find Raymond's attention fixed on Hale, who had picked up the interrupted discussion.
Hale turned patiently to another phase of the problem. The situation on telegraph news was highly complicated. Each paper arranged for this news independently and paid the full rate to the company. There was only one wire available to serve all the New York papers and it had its terminus across the Hudson River on the New Jersey shore. The papers had to take fifteen minute turns on the facilities, and all but the first in line were out of luck. News was read aloud from the crude Morse ticker to a representative of the receiving paper and there was deliberate eavesdropping and pilfering. The telegraph companies were in a precarious position because of their own competitive struggle and consequently they charged every penny the traffic would bear.
Although telegraph news was already expensive, Hale warned it might even become more costly. It was common knowledge that the telegraph companies were selling news from their various offices to anyone in spite of the fact that it had been gathered by representatives of the papers themselves. Hale also had been reliability informed that certain wire enterprises were secretly toying with the idea of setting up regular subsidiary organizations to gather and transmit news for sale. The dangers were obvious; with no governmental supervision, the telegraph companies would make it virtually impossible for any news but their own to move on limited wire facilities. Papers would be forced to surrender the vital function of news gathering and news itself would be reduced to a purely commercial and unreliable commodity dished up for a price by outsiders on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.
As Hale concluded, Webb was drawn aside from the group by his able assistant, Raymond, who founded the New York Times three years afterward, was convinced of the wisdom of the proposal Hale had just made. A few minutes later the old stalwart of the Courier and Enquirer returned to the table and one glance told Hale and the others that the battle was over.
So in the Sun office in May, 1848, the first real co-operative news gathering organization was formed. Its concept was limited and largely selfish. There was no immediate thought of benefiting any but these six papers and there was no disposition to look upon the collection of news as a great public service. The organization was by no means all that it might have been, but it was a beginning.
They called it the Associated Press.
The first step taken by the new organization was to perfect operating procedures. Hallock was named president and the office of "general agent" was created. The man to fill this job would be responsible for actively collecting and and distributing the news. A committee was immediately formed to supervise the first news gathering efforts. Frederick Hudson, Bennett's editorial right-hand man, and Raymond, the managing editor of Webb's Courier and Enquirer, were the two men selected. The committee quickly began functioning. First it arranged for the carter of the steamer Buena Vista at Halifax to intercept all European boats, obtain what news they brought and rush it on to Boston, the northernmost terminus of the telegraph. Then it began negotiating with the wire company to secure precedence for the transmission of this news to New York at attractive rates. Raymond outlined what was needed in a letter on May 13, 1848, to F. O. J. Smith, a tight-fisted promoter then in charge of the Boston-New York telegraph line.
Smith realized the increased business such an arrangement would bring and two days later he outlined a plan, quoting tolls. Raymond confirmed the contract on May 1. As the spring days moved on into another summer, it became obvious that Raymond had had definite plans in mind when he mentioned to Smith the possibility of forwarding news to other papers. The Philadelphia Public Ledger and the Baltimore Sun began receiving the dispatches. They were not members of the Associated Press. The New York organization restricted that privilege but they were its first paying clients. As the association grew the profitable practice of selling news to outside papers was greatly expanded.
Once the channel was clear for foreign intelligence, the committee turned its attention to news at home. Already there were independent "telegraph reporters" scattered throughout the country who wrote and transmitted copy to any newspaper that would buy. The system under which they operated was unsatisfactory. There was now a need for a man who was familiar with the free-lance sources as well as the general operation of the telegraph. The Association found the man for its general agent in Dr. Alexander Jones, a graduate in medicine whose early interest in communications had lured him into journalism. He had been a news gatherer on both sides of the Atlantic and he had devised the first cipher code to effect savings in telegraph bills.
Jones opened a simple office at the top of a long flight of seventy-eight stairs at the northwest corner of Broadway and Liberty Street. This served as headquarters of The Associated Press for more than two decades. The annual rental was less than $500 and the weekly administrative expense was less than $50. The general agent's salary was $20 a week and the entire cost of operations the first year was between $10,000 and $20,000. Payment for foreign news was the largest single item.
At first the entire New York staff consisted of Jones and one assistant, but later a second assistant was added. Trained, capable men were few and those available needed months of training. Besides his work in New York, Jones was kept busy engaging correspondents, or "agents" as they were called, to obtain and telegraph news to New York. The major duties of the general agent were to receive and distribute the intelligence received from these men, to pay telegraph tolls and other necessary expenses to conduct the business, and to see collections from the six member newspapers and hinterland clients. Sufficient copies of each incoming dispatch were made on manifold tissue paper to cover the list of subscribers.
The great rush was on to California and fantastic tales of fortunes in gold trickled overland to the east. But gold was only one story. The Associated Press covered its first presidential campaign; a Women's Rights Convention at Rochester demanded suffrage; President Polk offered to buy Cuba for $100,000,000; Garibaldi's red shirts battled the French, the King of Prussia became the hereditary emperor of the Germans. The New York terminus of the telegraph line was still in New Jersey ‹ the problem of bridging wide rivers baffled the wire companies and General Agent Jones intended to get the news from the Whig National Presidential Nominating Convention being held in Philadelphia across the Hudson as fast as possible. Flag signals, he decided, would do it. He went to Jersey City himself to make sure there would be no slip-up. At the pier near the Cortland Street Ferry on the New York side he stationed a boy from the Courier and Enquirer. The youngster had careful instructions. A white flag said Taylor; a red, Clay. Two white flags on the same staff meant Scott, and two reds meant McLean had been nominated.
Forty minutes after Jones crossed the river, the boy saw a white flag being waved vigorously from the New Jersey side. he raced off to notify the New York papers that General Taylor had been nominated. The news fled north along the telegraph to New England arousing great excitement. Unfortunately the signal the boy had seen was the white flag of a broker's representative in New Jersey wigwagging the latest Philadelphia stock quotations to a lookout on the Merchant's Exchange building in New York. Fortunately, Taylor was nominated the next day.
Coverage of the election was an epochal thing. it cost more than $1,000-- an awesome amount in 1848 - to report General Taylor's election. For the first time telegraph offices remained open all night. Dr. Jones went seventy-two hours without sleep before the story was finished.
Everything considered, the organization was off to a good start, but the man who began it did not live to see The Associated Press through its first crucial years. Hardly a month after the meeting in the Sun's office, David Hale had a stroke. He regained strength for a time but in January, 1849 death came to the pioneer of co-operative news gathering.
The "Yellow Fever" of Journalism
Yellow Journalism is a term first coined during the famous newspaper wars between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer II.
Pulitzer's paper the New York World and Hearst's New York Journal changed the content of newspapers adding more sensationalized stories and increasing the use of drawings and cartoons.
As more cartoons were being published in newspapers, Pulitzer began to publish a cartoon of his own that he titled "The Yellow Kid" in 1896. The cartoon was created by R.F. Outcault and became one of many objects fought over between Hearst and Pulitzer during their rivalry. Hearst later took Outcault and his cartoon from Pulitzer by offering him an outrageous salary. Pulitzer published another version of the cartoon very similar to "The Yellow Kid" to continue competing with Hearst.
With so much competition between the newspapers, the news was over-dramatized and altered to fit story ideas that publishers and editors thought would sell the most papers and stir the most interest for the public so that news boys could sell more papers on street corners.
They often used the "Yellow Kid" to sensationalize stories and discredit the stories of other newspapers. The "Yellow Kid" was also used to sway public opinion on important issues such as the Spanish-American war. Newspapers of the era did not practice the objectivity that newspapers today strive for.
Many historians believe that Hearst in particular played a major role in the American involvement with Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Hearst saw the war as a prime opportunity to boost his newspaper sales. He was the first newspaper to station a team of reporters in Cuba to monitor the events happening there. Hearst published articles of brutality, cruelty and inadequate care to sway public opinion regarding America's involvement in the war.
Two reporters, Richard Harding Davis and Frederick Remington, were the highest paid reporters for Hearst stationed in Cuba. When Remington sent a telegram telling Hearst that there was not much going on there, Hearst replied with his famous telegram,"You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." This is just a small example of Hearst sensationalized practices(Book # 1 and 2)
Hearst also became very involved with the war itself, after much public swaying through the dramatized stories of his paper, he eventually pushed the President to sign a bill officially entering America into the war.
Ironically, the term "Yellow Journalism" is partly credited to Pulitzer's involvement in the conflict with Hearst. As we are all aware, Pulitzer is now famous for his awards of outstanding journalistic achievement with the Pulitzer Prize.
Pulitzer's paper the New York World and Hearst's New York Journal changed the content of newspapers adding more sensationalized stories and increasing the use of drawings and cartoons.
As more cartoons were being published in newspapers, Pulitzer began to publish a cartoon of his own that he titled "The Yellow Kid" in 1896. The cartoon was created by R.F. Outcault and became one of many objects fought over between Hearst and Pulitzer during their rivalry. Hearst later took Outcault and his cartoon from Pulitzer by offering him an outrageous salary. Pulitzer published another version of the cartoon very similar to "The Yellow Kid" to continue competing with Hearst.
With so much competition between the newspapers, the news was over-dramatized and altered to fit story ideas that publishers and editors thought would sell the most papers and stir the most interest for the public so that news boys could sell more papers on street corners.
They often used the "Yellow Kid" to sensationalize stories and discredit the stories of other newspapers. The "Yellow Kid" was also used to sway public opinion on important issues such as the Spanish-American war. Newspapers of the era did not practice the objectivity that newspapers today strive for.
Many historians believe that Hearst in particular played a major role in the American involvement with Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Hearst saw the war as a prime opportunity to boost his newspaper sales. He was the first newspaper to station a team of reporters in Cuba to monitor the events happening there. Hearst published articles of brutality, cruelty and inadequate care to sway public opinion regarding America's involvement in the war.
Two reporters, Richard Harding Davis and Frederick Remington, were the highest paid reporters for Hearst stationed in Cuba. When Remington sent a telegram telling Hearst that there was not much going on there, Hearst replied with his famous telegram,"You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." This is just a small example of Hearst sensationalized practices(Book # 1 and 2)
Hearst also became very involved with the war itself, after much public swaying through the dramatized stories of his paper, he eventually pushed the President to sign a bill officially entering America into the war.
Ironically, the term "Yellow Journalism" is partly credited to Pulitzer's involvement in the conflict with Hearst. As we are all aware, Pulitzer is now famous for his awards of outstanding journalistic achievement with the Pulitzer Prize.
The Penny Press
The Penny Press was most famous for its low price, a penny per paper. It became popular with the American public because while other papers were priced around six cents, they were able to sell their paper for just a penny. The low price made newspapers and the news available to more than just upper class citizens for the first time.
The labor and lower classes were able to purchase a paper and read the news. As more people began buying papers throughout the country, news and journalism became more important overall.
Newspapers also began paying more attention to the public it served. They were quick to realize that the same information and news that interested the six cent public, did not interest the penny public. Newspapers used information from police stations, criminal courts and divorce courts to fill their paper and make it more appealing to their new public.
The heavy dependence on advertising as a major source of revenue was a main reason that the Penny Press was able to sell papers for a lower price than anyone else. Other papers relied heavily on subscriptions and daily sales. The price of paper and materials used to produce the newspapers also decreased making the production of the newspaper itself less expensive.
A pioneer during the Penny Press era was Benjamin H. Day, founder of the New York Sun. The Sun was the first popular penny paper. The paper's motto, printed at the top of every front page was:
"The object of this paper is to lay before the public, at a price within the means of every one, all the news of the day, and at the same time offer an advantageous medium for advertisements."
The changes made to the newspaper during the Penny Press era set a precedent for the way newspapers operate today. Newspapers rely heavily on advertising as a main source of income and that is also a main reason they are still being offered at relatively low prices today.
Newspapers also pay more attention to their surrounding communities and report of important information more diligently and objectively. Newspapers changed their coverage when they no longer relied so dependently on subscriptions or daily sales to make a profit.
The labor and lower classes were able to purchase a paper and read the news. As more people began buying papers throughout the country, news and journalism became more important overall.
Newspapers also began paying more attention to the public it served. They were quick to realize that the same information and news that interested the six cent public, did not interest the penny public. Newspapers used information from police stations, criminal courts and divorce courts to fill their paper and make it more appealing to their new public.
The heavy dependence on advertising as a major source of revenue was a main reason that the Penny Press was able to sell papers for a lower price than anyone else. Other papers relied heavily on subscriptions and daily sales. The price of paper and materials used to produce the newspapers also decreased making the production of the newspaper itself less expensive.
A pioneer during the Penny Press era was Benjamin H. Day, founder of the New York Sun. The Sun was the first popular penny paper. The paper's motto, printed at the top of every front page was:
"The object of this paper is to lay before the public, at a price within the means of every one, all the news of the day, and at the same time offer an advantageous medium for advertisements."
The changes made to the newspaper during the Penny Press era set a precedent for the way newspapers operate today. Newspapers rely heavily on advertising as a main source of income and that is also a main reason they are still being offered at relatively low prices today.
Newspapers also pay more attention to their surrounding communities and report of important information more diligently and objectively. Newspapers changed their coverage when they no longer relied so dependently on subscriptions or daily sales to make a profit.
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