History of Journalism

The development of journalism wasn’t possible without the invention of the movable type printing press, attributed to Gutenberg in 1456, which purpose has always been the spread of communication in different cultural contexts.

The Industrial Revolution also enabled the growth of technology and trade, marked by new specialized techniques.

Ø The first regularly published newspaper in English was The Oxford Gazette in 1665.

Ø In the U.S, the first colonial newspaper was the New England Courant, published by Printer James Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s brother.

Journalism in the U.S

As American cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington grew with the rise of Industrial Revolution, so did newspapers. Technological innovations allowed newspapers to print thousands of copies, boost circulation and increase revenue.

Ø In 1851 the New York Times was founded and establishes the principle of balanced reporting in high-quality writing.

Ø By the latter half of the 1880s the print media has grown in importance around the world to a social status that rivaled even government institutions.

Journalism had risen to become the Fourth Power, commonly known as the Fourth Estate, a non-governmental private group of independent companies that had the ability to sway the general public in almost any direction they chose.

Around the world, the power of the media had become as important as the greatest heads of states of any nation.

Besides, in the U.S the constitution itself established the journalistic reporting free, independent and unregulated which allowed the rise of Yellow Journalism.

Yellow Journalism

The birth of yellow journalism was led by Joseph Pulitzer and William Hearst. They owned two of the most widely read and influential newspapers in New York. Both of them competed to increase their newspaper’s circulation. Joseph Pulitzer also had to live with the fact that his chief competitor was his brother, Albert Pulitzer.

Ø Yellow Journalism is a type of journalism that presents no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of events, sensationalism, scandal-mongering and so on.

Ø In 1948, Frank Wisner the director of the CIA’s office of special projects created the Operation Mockingbird which was a Central Intelligence Agency operation to influence domestic and foreign media.

Ø The CIA had ensured the Americans could hear only those stories their government wished them to hear. As a result, the American public was being fed more and more propaganda meant to steer them in a particular direction rather than providing them with the information that they needed to make up their own minds.

Ø During the Vietnam War false information was reported back to the Americans as well as we received in our Malvina´s war. In Argentina’s case that information was controlled by the military government that had given the Press Power to the owners of Clarín, La Nación and La Razón. Besides, that military government censored information that they believed threatening to their positions.

Ø In 1983 fifty corporations controlled the majority of all news media in U.S. Ben Bagdikian wrote in his book called The Media Monopoly that in 1992 fewer than two dozens corporations owned and operated 90% of the mass media.

Ø A few years later, in 2000, in his sixth edition of the same book, the number fell to six and since them there have been more mergers and the scope has extended to include the Internet Market.

Ø Finally, in 2004 Bagdikian revised and expanded his book, The New Media Monopoly, showed that five huge corporations now control most of the media industry in U.S, they are Disney, Murdoch’s News corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany and Viacom. However, as we know in Argentina this phenomenon is even worse, as the number of corporations that operate the mass media is more reduced.

Watergate

Ø June 18, 1972: There was a burglary of documents and confidential material at a Watergate office in Washington, during election time. Five men (Edward Martin, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio Martinez, Virguilo Gonzalez and Bernard Barker) were arrested inside the office of the Democratic National Committee. It was supposed that those men were helped by Hunt (CIA) and Liddy (FBI).

Ø Carl Berstein and Bob Woodward were called by the Washington Post to work on the story.

Ø They discovered that Edward Martin was a salaried security coordinator of Nixon (Republican) and that Barker had received a $25,000 check.

Ø John Mitchell was thought to have paid for the burglary and other Nixon's men were accused of sabotage, too.

Ø By 1973 there were two official investigations led by the Prosecutor Archibald Cox and Sam Erwin, from the Senate Watergate Committee.

Ø In July 1973 Alexander Butterfield, a White House aide, told the Senate Committee that Nixon had a secret taping system which recorded his phone calls and conversations in the Oval Office.

Ø There was big struggle: while Nixon was determined not to give up executive documents, the Senate Committee was determined to get them.

Ø After some months of negotiation, the White House agreed to provide written summaries of taped conversations. Erwin accepted this treat, but Cox didn't. So, Nixon ordered to fire Cox but his aides Richardson and Ruckelshows refused to and resigned. Finally Bork was the one who dismissed Cox.

Ø On November 20th, Nixon's lawyers informed a federal judge that one of the key tapes was erased.

Ø For the time Nixon declared "I'm not a crook", nobody believed him.

Ø On April 1974 Nixon announced he release of 1200 pages transcripts (they were public). The Judiciary Committe ordered the White House to hand over the tapes. A week later, Nixon did it and it was prooved that the president had played a leading role in the cover-up from the very beginnig.

Ø Before the Judiciary Committee could vote the articles of impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 8th.

Ø The journalists presented a best seller 'All the President's Men', and after that, a movie with the same name.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/06/14/VI2007061401076.html