1Chapter 6Newspapers and the NewsReflections of a

1
Chapter 6
Newspapers and the News:
Reflections of a Democratic Society
2
When Is It News That an Entire City
Is Being Poisoned By Its Water Supply?
City of Flint, Mich., had high levels of lead in its water after
changing from lake to river water
Local journalists say they were slow to respond because
officials said water was ok
But local journalists eventually drove the story to receive
national attention
3
Hanson, Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
National journalists saw it as heartland story, followed national
stories instead
Communities depend on local journalism for news about
important local occurrences
When Is It News That an Entire City
Is Being Poisoned By Its Water Supply?

4
Early Newspapers
1618: Curanto, published in Amsterdam, is first English-
language newspaper
1622: newspapers being published in Britain, distributed
through coffeehouses
Followers of church reformers John Calvin and Martin Luther
among earliest publishers
5
5
Colonial Publishing
1690: Publick Occurrences, first paper published in American
colonies
Colonial newspapers subject to British censorship
6
6
Colonial Publishing
1721: New England Courant
Published by James Franklin, Ben’s older brother
First paper published without “By Authority” notice; James sent

to prison for doing so, Ben takes over publishing paper
7
7
Early American Newspapers
Audience primarily wealthy elite
Published by political parties
Focused on opinion, not news
Expensive and had small circulation
Generally bought by prepaid subscription
8
8
Penny Press Revolution
Benjamin Day’s idea: The New York Sun – “It shines for all”
Sold on the street for one or two cents
Supported primarily by advertising
9
9

Penny Press Revolution
First papers to shift focus on news
Journalistic objectivity developed as a way to appeal to larger
audiences
Rise of working class supported penny press growth
10
10
A Modern Democratic Society
Rapidly growing number of papers
Growing number of people working for wages
U.S. transforming from rural to urban society
Expanding interest in national and global events
Newspapers promoted democratic market society
People acquire the news “habit”
11
11
Newspaper Wars: Hearst vs. Pulitzer
Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World
Creation of the front page
Often staged sensational stunts
Created headlines with news
Targeting immigrants and women
Nellie Bly and stunt journalism

12
12
Newspaper Wars: Hearst vs. Pulitzer
William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal
Rise of yellow journalism
Popularized comics, including Yellow Kid
Sensationalistic stories by both papers promoting Spanish-
American War in Cuba
13
13
Tabloids
Smaller format newspapers written in a lively, often
sensationalistic, style
Tabloid “jazz journalism” era
New York Daily News and New York Post
Racy London tabloids
14

14
Broadcast News – Radio
1920: KDKA covers Harding-Cox presidential election results
1930s: newspapers argue radio should not broadcast news
WW II: Edward R. Murrow broadcasting for CBS from Europe.
Brought the war home for listeners
www.youtube.com/watch?v=clKaP5YCB8k
15
15
Broadcast News – Television
1940: republican national convention covered by experimental
NBC television network
Murrow makes jump from radio to television
1948: CBS starts nightly 15-minute newscast
1963: CBS expands newscast to 30 minutes with Walter
Cronkite
1979: ABC starts Nightline during Iranian hostage crisis
16
16
Broadcast News – Cable
1980: CNN goes on the air, promises not to sign off until the
“end of the world”
1991: Gulf War makes CNN the place to go for current news

2000s: Fox News comes to dominate the cable news ratings with
programming that takes a strong point of view
As of 2017, approximately 50% of Americans get news from
television in some form
17
17
Newspapers Today
Few cities have competing daily newspapers
Most newspapers owned by large chains
Largest chain is Gannett, publisher of USA Today; owns
approximately 83 daily papers
Advertising revenue fell by two-thirds over last ten years
NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Chicago
Tribune all have rapidly growing digital circulation
18
18
Papers with National Reach:
Wall Street Journal
Traditional look with focus on financial news
Owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp
Combined digital/print daily circulation of approximately 2.27
million
Editorial page is one of nation’s leading conservative voices
19

19
USA Today
Brought color and design to forefront
Originally described as having “News McNuggets”
Has daily digital/print circulation of 4.14 million
USA Today considers itself a “multi-platform news and
information media company”
20
20
New York Times
Started as penny paper
Influential in defining national news
Although tied to New York, has national circulation
Massive growth in online digital circulation
21

21
Washington Post
Came to national prominence with Watergate reporting of
Woodward and Bernstein
Prominent source of government news
Much larger national presence online under leadership of new
owner Jeff Bezos
22
22
Los Angeles Times
Leading West Coast paper
Gaining national profile with online presence
Won fight with Disney when media giant tried to cut LA Times
off from movie screenings. Paper ran negative stories about
Disney’s financial relationship with city of Anaheim (where
Disneyland is located)
23
23

Objectivity and the View From Nowhere
Multiple meanings for objectivity: just-the-facts, “both sides,”
reporting what is true without contrasting point of view
Objectivity as a goal came from era of the penny press to
improve sales
Too often objectivity means “what I agree with”
“View From Nowhere” means journalists avoid taking sides so
as to appear unbiased
24
Implications of View From Nowhere
By placing journalists between extremes of left and right they
can all themselves balanced
Because journalists are balanced, they are not biased
Because they are not biased, journalists are being legitimate
reporters
Rosen suggests that reporters should focus on being
“transparent.” Let audience understand point of view of
journalist and present all the evidence
25
Community and Suburban Papers
Daily and weekly papers serving individual communities and
suburbs
97% of newspapers in U.S. fall into this category
Community papers can and do win Pulitzer Prizes
Publish news people can’t get anywhere else
“A local paper won’t get scooped by CNN”
26

26
What Is News?
Timeliness
Proximity
Prominence
Consequence
Rarity
Human interest
27
27
Herbert Gans: Basic Journalistic Values
Ethnocentrism
The belief that your own country and culture is better than all
others
Altruistic democracy
The idea that politicians should serve the public good, not their
own interests
28
Responsible capitalism
The idea that open competition among businesses will create a

better, more prosperous world. But must be responsible
Small town pastoralism
Nostalgia for the old-fashioned rural community
29
Individualism
The quest to identify the one person who makes a difference
Moderatism
The value of moderation in all things. Extremists on left and
right are viewed with suspicion
30
Herbert Gans:
Basic Journalistic Values
Social order
When journalists cover disorder they tend to focus on the
restoration of order
Leadership
Media look at the actions of leaders whereas the actions of
lower-level bureaucrats are ignored
31
Media Transformation: Where Do We Go for the News?
People often choose their news sources based on their political
values
40% of Trump supporters in 2016 listed Fox News as main news

source; 18% of Clinton supporters listed CNN
Chart categorizes news outlets from liberal to conservative for
political point of view
32
Also be categorized by quality from Original Fact Reporting to
Inaccurate/Fabricated Information
www.ralphehanson.com/2018/05/21/ch-6-categorizing-news-
sources/
33
34
Dangers Journalists Face
In 2017, 46 journalists were killed in direct connection with
their work
Eight killed in Iraq, 8 killed in Syria, 6 in Mexico and 4 in India
Five journalists shot and killed at Capital Gazette in Annapolis,
Maryland in 2018
Big consequence of attacks is that stories from dangerous places
won’t get told
35

35
The Ethnic Press
African American press dates back to at least 1827
Freedom’s Journal, North Star published as emancipation papers
Chicago Defender started as yellow journalism paper; still
published in 2000s
Spanish-language papers face declining circulation like rest of
industry; El Nuevo Herald, in Miami, Florida, is one of the most
significant
36
36
The Gay Press
Gay papers started in late 1960s, copied on office equipment,
distributed in gay bars
Grew into profitable, professional papers
Hit hard by 2009 recession
Losing revenue as gay advertising moves increasingly into big
media
37
37

Alternative Weeklies
Started in 1960s and 1970s as “underground” papers
Targeted at young, urban readership that big media are having a
hard time reaching
Most face declining circulation
38
38
News in the Age of Mobile Media
National reach newspapers (NY Times, Washington Post, etc.)
seeing significant online growth
Paper delivery is becoming less important
“It’s wrong to say we’re becoming a digital society. We already
are a digital society. And even that statement is behind the
times. We’re a mobile society” – Marty Barron, executive
editor, Washington Post
39
39
The Future Is Mobile and Social
In 2016, 67% of adults get news through social media
Two-thirds (or more) of social media users get news through
social media
News is social and news is mobile
40

40
1
Chapter 7
Audio:
Music and Talk Across Media
2
Lin-Manuel Miranda:
Bringing Hip-Hop to Broadway
Kendrick Lamar and Miranda both win Pulitzers for hip-hop
Hamilton uses hip-hop to tell story of American revolution Uses
“language of youth and energy and rebellion”
Hip-hop now most popular musical genre in United States based
on sales
3
Storing Sound
1877: Edison invents phonograph, records sound on foil
cylinders

1888: Emile Berliner develops gramophone, plays music on
mass produced discs
1953: Hi-Fi is combination of technologies to create better
music reproduction
4
4
Signals at a Distance
1844: Samuel Morse’s telegraph allowed messages to be sent
over wires
1888: Theoretical work by Heinrich Hertz lays the groundwork
for wireless telegraph
1890s: Guglielmo Marconi develops wireless telegraph
1905: Reginald Fessenden makes Christmas Eve broadcast with
voices and music
5
5
Radio Music Box Memo
Written in 1915 by American Marconi engineer David Sarnoff
Suggested major uses for radio as mass communication tool
including news, music, and sports
More receivers than transmitters
6

6
RCA Monopoly
Created to bring together patents, develop radio as medium
Composed of General Electric, AT&T, Westinghouse, and
United Fruit Company
Why United Fruit Company? Held many radio patents to
communicate with ships carrying fruit
1920: KDKA in Pittsburgh launched as first commercial radio
station
7
7
Growth of Radio Networks
Sarnoff saw NBC as source of programming
William Paley saw CBS as advertising medium
ABC was splintered off from NBC
8
8
Growth of Radio Networks
9

9
Golden Age of Radio
Music
Drama
Little Orphan Annie, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow
Soap operas
Guiding Light started on radio in 1937, moved to television in
1952, ran until 2009
10
10
Radio’s New Look
HD tried to bring new life to broadcast radio, but few receivers;
to date a commercial failure
Satellite Radio – XM and Sirius merge. Single service more
successful
Mobile streaming increasingly used in vehicles
11
11

Online & Mobile Audio
Streaming audio – can be connected to conventional radio
stations/networks or online-only services (Pandora, Spotify,
Apple Music)
Podcasting – portable audio you can download to a device and
take with you
Podcasts bring programing from both the short head and the
long tail
Named after Apple’s iPod – mostly discontinued, replaced by
smartphones
12
12
Smart Speakers
Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod
Deliver audio programing, control of “internet of things”
devices, online shopping
Essentially a full-time listening device in your home connected
to large external servers
“Living in the future” or “Creepy surveillance culture”?
13
Rock ‘n’ Roll and Musical Integration
Race Records: Rhythm & Blues
1950s: Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry
Dewey Phillips attracted multi-racial audience for Red, Hot &
Blue radio show

1950s and 1960s: Motown & girl groups
Music helped to drive the civil rights movement
14
14
British Invasion
A ‘rougher edge’ sound from British bands
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
The Who
Dusty Springfield
Many others
15
15
Role of Producers
What does a producer do?
Rise of concept albums
Growing role of producer with disco
16

16
Hip-Hop Culture
MCing – rapping over recorded music
DJing – playing recorded music from multiple sources
B-boying – hip-hop dancing, often referred to as breakdancing
Graffiti art – the visual images of the culture
Hip-hop gives voice to protest movements around the world
17
17
Country Music
Grew out of folk, hillbilly, and “old timey” music
Songs often relay a story about people in suburban or rural
settings
Revitalized in 1980 by movie Urban Cowboy
18
18
Finding a Niche: Popular Radio Formats
Country 13.2%
News/talk 12.3%
Adult contemporary 8.1%

Pop contemporary hit 7.1%
Classic rock 5.9%
19
19
Radio Business: Talk Radio
Political talk radio
Most political talk is conservative; Rush Limbaugh, Sean
Hannity most popular
Shock Jocks
Howard Stern, Bubba the Love Sponge
All-sports radio
Passionate listeners who won’t change channel
20
20
Public Radio
NPR founded in 1967
All Things Considered goes on the air in 1971
NPR’s Morning Edition news show has bigger audience than
any of the morning TV programs
21

21
Public Radio
NPR’s website is key part of network’s strategy
Is no longer National Public Radio, just NPR
22
22
Effects of Music on Young People
There have always been concerns about effects of lyrics on
young people
Adults and young adults have different interpretations of lyrics
and meanings
Hip-hop has attracted lots of controversy
Adults maintain connections with music from their youth
23
23
The Changing Musical Experience
Death of social music, played and performed in home for
entertainment, with the invention of phonograph and the rise
radio
Rise of “personal soundtrack” with Sony Walkman, then iPod

and other MP3 players
Personalized media use continues with downloads, podcasts and
streaming audio
Can lead to “withdrawal from social connections”
24
Rise of Digital Music
LPs versus 45s
With analog recordings, quality of copies degrades with each
generation
Digital recordings allow consumers to make perfect copies
CDs introduced in early 1980s, sold for premium price
Resurgence of analog/vinyl in 2010s
25
25
Consequences of Digital Music
Consumers “share” music over the Internet, possible violations
of copyright law
Artists can use Internet to promote music directly to consumers,
bypassing record labels and moving to “long tail”
26
26

Radio Consolidation
Broadcast ownership largely deregulated with
Telecommunications Act of 1996
Prior to 1985, could own no more than 7 AM and 7 FM stations
nation-wide
After 1996, could own unlimited number of radio stations
By 2003, Clear Channel owned 1,200+ stations. As of 2014,
renamed iHeartMedia, owned 862 stations
But radio economics remain difficult
27
27
Radio Without Radio
Audio shows no longer need radio stations to get widespread
distribution
Podcasting gives both senders and receivers new opportunities
for programming
What can we hear (see, watch) if we get away from legacy
media?
28
28
Media Transformations:
Working and Living in the Long Tail
Doug and Telisha Williams perform as the band Wild Ponies

Indie musicians can make a middle-class living by engaging
with listeners
Kevin Kelly’s Theory of 1,000 True Fans
Digital technology puts creative media power in hands of
individuals
29
29
New Economic Models for Music Industry
File sharing, user-generated content, and YouTube changing
marketplace
But report in 2017 notes revenue from recorded music has been
steadily increasing in recent years
Driving force is streaming services
Artists seeking range of options to make money
Touring, sale of merchandise, commercial endorsements, direct
sales of music to consumers
30
30
Journalistic Values Notes
Gans’s Basic Journalistic Values.
There is more to the bias argument than the liberal-versus-
conservative issue. For example, some observers charge that the
media have a bias toward attractiveness or charisma. There can
also be a bias toward making money or attracting an audience.

Political scientist and media scholar Doris Graber argued that
when it comes to selecting stories for coverage, the strongest
bias is for those that will have the greatest appeal to the
publication’s or program’s audience.87 (Links to an external
site.)
Rather than looking for examples of bias in the news, media
sociologist Herbert Gans set out to find the actual values
exhibited within the stories themselves. He asked what the
values—the biases—of journalism were. To find the answer, he
studied the content of the CBS and NBC news
programs, Time magazine, and Newsweek.
Gans found eight enduring values in the stories he studied:
ethnocentrism, altruistic democracy, responsible capitalism,
small-town pastoralism, individualism, moderatism, social
order, and leadership. These values were not stated explicitly;
rather, they emerged from what was presented as good and
normal and what was presented as bad.88 (Links to an external
site.) Let’s look briefly at each of Gans’s values:
1. Ethnocentrism is the idea that your own country and culture
are better than all others. This shows up in the U.S. media in
stories that compare other countries’ values to American values.
To the degree that other countries live up to American ideals,
they are good; if they are different, they are bad. Therefore,
enemies of the United States are presented as evil because they
don’t conform to our values. Stories can be critical of the
United States, but they are criticizing deviance from basic
American values, not those values themselves.
2. Altruistic democracy is the idea that politicians should serve
the public good, not their own interests. This leads to stories
that are critical of corrupt politicians. By the same token,
citizens, as voters, have the same obligation to work for the
public good and not for selfish interests. Special interest groups
and lobbyists are suspect because they are not working for the
common good. This was perhaps best illustrated by the
Watergate hearings in the 1970s, which revealed the corrupt
behavior that occurred in the White House so that President

Richard Nixon could stay in power. President Bill Clinton was
criticized for his affair with Monica Lewinsky in part because
he was serving his own interests rather than working for the
good of the American public. President Donald Trump has been
criticized for maintaining a controlling interest in his global
business empire while being in charge of American foreign
policy that could affect the value of that business.
3. Responsible capitalism is the idea that open competition
among businesses will create a better, more prosperous world
for everyone. But by the same token, businesses must be
responsible and not seek excess profits. The same is true of
labor unions. Hence the news media tend to be harsh in their
coverage of greed and deception by big businesses, yet they still
tend to praise people who develop and grow companies. This is
why there has been so much negative coverage of banking and
investment companies following the stock market crash and
recession in the late 2000s.
4. Small-town pastoralism is nostalgia for the old-fashioned,
rural community. The agricultural community is where all
goodness is rooted, while big cities are dangerous places that
suffer from numerous social problems. Suburbs, where many
people live, tend to be overlooked entirely.
5. Individualism is the constant quest to identify the one person
who makes a difference. People like the notion that one person
can make a difference, that we are not all cogs in a giant
machine. Reporters like to use a single person as a symbol. That
explains in part why journalists focused on the actions of Emma
González following the Parkland school shooting. Instead of
trying to talk about the gun control movement as a whole, the
press used González as a symbol to represent all the
protesters.89 (Links to an external site.)
6. Moderatism is the value of moderation in all things.
Extremists on both the left and the right are criticized. Although
the media attempt to present a balance of opinions, they tend to
report on views that are mildly to the left and right of center.
One of the strongest criticisms the media can make is referring

to an individual as an extremist.
7. The value of social order is seen primarily in the coverage of
disorder. When journalists cover stories that involve disorder,
such as protests, floods, disasters, or riots, the focus of the
story tends to be on the restoration of order. Once media
coverage of the Flint water crisis got started, social order was a
big issue, and the press focused heavily on how that order, in
the form of clean, running tap water, might be restored.
8. Finally, the media value leadership. The media tend to look
at the actions of leaders, whereas the actions of lower -level
bureaucrats—which may well be more important—are ignored.
This is in some ways an extension of the bias toward
individualism, the difference one person can make.
Overall, Gans argues that there is reformist bias to the media,
which tend to advocate “honest, meritocratic, and anti-
bureaucratic government.”90 (Links to an external
site.) Journalists like to argue that since both sides criticize the
press, they must be doing a good, balanced job.91 (Links to an
external site.) Perhaps a better explanation for why both
conservatives and liberals charge the media with bias is that the
eight values Gans found within the media reflect a combination
of both liberal and conservative values—again illustrating why
people holding a particular viewpoint will see bias in the
media’s attempt to be neutral and balanced.
CMST 432 Media Systems and Communication Technology
Recommended Text and Materials
Hanson, R. E. (2018) Mass communication: Living in a media
world (7th ed.). SAGE.
Recommended Resources for Additional Exploration
The Mass Communication student companion
website: http://edge.sagepub.com/hanson7e (Links to an
external site.)
This site is a particularly good resource for review of course

materials.
Journalistic Values Assignment
Gans’s Basic Journalistic Values (see the “Journalistic Values
Notes” file attached)
Pick up a copy of a major newspaper (USA Today, Seattle
Times, Wall Street Journal) or the nearest urban
newspaper (Renton Reporter, Seattle Medium) and look at the
front page.
You can also read the front pages online at this
website https://www.freedomforum.org/todaysfrontpages/ (Link
s to an external site.)
Mark each example of Gans’s basic journalistic values that you
can identify.
Give the name and date of your paper.
· List every story by headline on the front page.
· List the basic journalistic values from Gans for each story and
provide examples of how you see them. Not all stories will fit
perfectly but review them and give your best argument for why
you think its fits into one category versus another. Be specific.
HINT: You should have something to say about each story on
your front page.

1Chapter 6Newspapers and the NewsReflections of a

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

More from EttaBenton28

More from EttaBenton28 (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (6)

1Chapter 6Newspapers and the NewsReflections of a