RIM: Lesson - Newspapers and Democracy: The History of Newspapers

The History of Newspapers

You’ve been learning about propaganda and the ways that people use language to persuade (for good or bad!). Simultaneously you’ve been putting your critical thinking skills to work as you sift through the rhetoric used by companies and political figures alike.

Critical thinking is perhaps the most important skill to have in our modern world. With information all around us, it is crucial to have this ability. Experts tend to agree that being widely-read and informed is foundational when it comes to being a critical, discerning thinker. Perhaps no other medium has helped establish this foundation more significantly than the newspaper.

Newspapers in the Early History of the United States

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Col. Edward Carrington, Jan. 16, 1787

As noted in the introduction, print media, specifically newspapers and pamphlets, were essential tools for the dissemination of information in Colonial America. During the American Revolution, the press not only provided news but also helped to incite rebellion against England. The Founding Fathers understood both the necessity and power of a free press. Prior to the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the Constitution did not provide any assurances to publishers. Note the angst in the tone of the following 1787 quotation in the Freeman's Journal, a newspaper in Philadelphia:

"As long as the liberty of the press continues unviolated, and the people have the right of expressing and publishing their sentiments upon every public measure, it is next to impossible to enslave a free nation. Men of an aspiring and tyrannical disposition, sensible of this truth, have ever been inimical to the press, and have considered the shackling of it, as the first step towards the accomplishment of their hateful domination, and the entire suppression of all liberty of public discussion, as necessary to its support. For even a standing army, that grand engine of oppression, if it were as numerous as the abilities of any nation could maintain, would not be equal to the purposes of despotism over an enlightened people. An abolition of that grand palladium of freedom, the liberty of the press, in the proposed plan of government, and the conduct of its authors, and patrons, is a striking exemplification of these observations."

Considering the less free nations of the world today, think about how the state controls the flow of information. The population may be terrified by physical force, but often, people remain oppressed by the lack of communication with those more free.

Reading Assignment: "History of Newspapers in America"

Download and read the article History of Newspapers in America Links to an external site.. It describes the origins of the newspaper business in the United States.

History of Journalism in America

The next piece of writing describes the immense growth of print media but also hints at the serious crisis that newspapers are facing today.

In A Nutshell

America's first newspaper, Publick Occurrences, was published in Boston in 1690.

Today, just over three centuries later, we have more than 1,400 dailies in this country, with the two largest (USA Today and The Wall Street Journal) claiming circulations exceeding two million readers each. The first newspaper promised to provide its readers with the news, "both foreign and domestic." Today, we expect our newspaper to do the same, but our definition of what constitutes the news has expanded considerably over the centuries. We would now consider the religious commentary and sermons that filled many of the first American newspapers to be totally out of place--just as they would surely deem inappropriate the attention we pay to crime, scandal, sports, and entertainment in today's papers.

The newspaper is one of our most revered cultural institutions—but its history has been one of change and adaptation. Today, with the rise of the Internet, we stand on the brink of another revolution in the delivery of news. The next century may bring changes to the news industry, and perhaps even to our definition of the news itself, as dramatic as those separating Publick Occurrences from USA Today.

Works Cited:

Shmoop Editorial Team. "History of Journalism in America." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 15 Dec 2010.

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