First Newspaper In Colonial America example essay topic

The History of Newspapers Today, people can use newspapers to find out many things. One can use the newspaper to check sports scores, get the day's news, read 'feel good's tories, or even find out their horoscope. It was not always that way. From the 'Acta Diurnal,' reported in the ancient Roman empire, to the New York Times, newspapers have come a long way. In this report, the distance that newspapers have traveled since their inception is going to be outlined.

Before literacy was commonplace in societies, town criers would announce the news of the land to the land's people. These criers used oratory skills to spread the news on crossroads and the marketplace. Messengers would be commissioned to report to the town after battles to report a victory or a defeat to the townspeople. As people became more civilized and language and literacy was developed, news that was delivered by spoken word was starting to be written down.

In 59 BC, Julius Caesar released the 'Acta Diu rana. ' This was a daily gazette which was printed and hung in the Roman Forum. This gazette would report news of Rome, such as military campaigns, executions, and trials. The Chinese also started government-produced news sheets called the ta ipo. While the 'Acta' was the news for the entire populace of Rome, the ta ipo was only for the government officials until about 618 AD Those were the only noted types of printed news until 1456, when Gutenberg invented movable type.

Soon after the printing press was invented, there was a written account of a tournament in Rome in about 1470. There were letters written by Christopher Columbus which were circulating Barcelona before Columbus returned from Spain in 1493. For about one-hundred-thirty years, there were pamphlets, sheets of paper, and books being printed and circulated with news events. Although these were written accounts of news utilizing movable type, they were not considered newspapers. Modern newspapers as we know them began in the late 1500's.

In 1566, the Venetian avis i began. This publication was regularly distributed throughout Venice. There was information about wars and politics in Italy and also the rest of Europe. They were printed weekly. This set the stage for other newspapers to follow the format outlined in those papers.

They employed the style of using a dateline. This is only speculation, but this packet says early newspapers in Venice used the city where the news came from and then it put the date next to it. Perhaps that is where our dateline comes from. Early in the 17th century, regularly printed newspapers became more of the rule as opposed to the exception. Weekly newspapers began circulation in Frankfort and Vienna (1615), Hamburg (1616), Berlin (1617), and Amsterdam (1618).

England was not far behind as coranto's were being printed. Coranto's were single sheet tracts dealing with current foreign affairs. In 1655, the 'Gazette' was printed in Oxford England. The 'Gazette' was the first regularly released English newspaper. It was released weekly. As newspapers were making great strides in England, big steps were also being taken by them in the way of colonizing.

When the English colonies develop, so did newspapers. In the year 1690, Benjamin Harris tried to print the first newspaper in colonial America. Authorities banned his newspaper ('Publick Occurences Both For reign and Domestick') saying that he was printing without a license to print and he was printing 'reflections of a very high nature. ' The next attempts by others would be successful. In 1704, John Campbell started the 'Boston Newsletter. ' This became America's first regularly printed newspaper.

This paper paved the way for newspapers to develop all throughout the colonies. As the colonies attempted to steer away from England, newspapers became an outlet for anti-England propaganda. Along with these papers came articles that was critical of the government and subsequently cases of libel were developed. One very important case was the Zenger trial. John Peter Zenger began the 'New York Weekly Journal' in 1733 and his newspaper printed some articles against the colony and its Governor, William Cosby.

After a speech by Alexander Hamilton, Zenger was found not guilty by the jury and this was a crucial step toward freedom of the press. After the revolution, newspapers needed something else to criticize, so journalists criticized people affiliated with the 'wrong' political party. Freedom of the press was guaranteed in 1787 in the Bill of Rights but there was a threat of war with France. Federalists needed to squelch the Republican writings done in newspapers, so they passed the Sedition Act in 1798. The Sedition Act was the most significant threat to freedom of the press.

It stated that 'any false, scandalous and malicious writing against the United States, with intent to... bring them... into contempt or disrepute. ' There were at least fifteen convictions. Resentment over this act helped Thomas Jefferson assume the office of the presidency in 1801. Jefferson said that 'freedom of the press is incompatible with an orderly government. ' At this point many new things were happening to newspapers in America.

In 1786, the first newspaper printed west of the Alleghenies, 'The Pittsburgh Gazette' was printed. By 1801, there were 20 daily newspapers in America. Daily printing kept merchants abreast to the price changes in the area. This allowed them to move their product more efficiently. After publishers of papers had been using the same technology that monks in the 17th century used to print their bibles, a couple of new inventions came in that would really help the industry. In 1799, N.L. Robert invented a paper making machine (the Fourdrinier) A German, Frederick Koenig invented the cylinder press in 1813.

It was first introduced into the United States in 1825. This really helped the efficiency of printing papers. The cylinder press was capable of printing 4,000 impressions in one hour. These inventions allowed the Penny Press develop.

Benjamin Day started the 'New York Sun' on September 3, 1833. This paper was one that was printed on 4 letter-size pages and was filled with human interest stories and police reports. The very workable price of one cent was integral to this papers success. Other papers in the colonies would usually cost five or six cents, and that was too expensive for many people. After two years, the 'Sun' had a circulation of 15,000 copies a day.

That was much higher than the previous circulation leader. The New York Courier and Enquirer's old 4,500 copies a day before the 'Sun' came into being. The above inventions helped the production of the 'Sun', but other inventions helped newspapers in another way. The telegraph was invented in 1844 by Samuel Morse. This made possible the communication of news between cities. Shortly thereafter, railroads were springing up all over the country.

When railroads were built, telegraph lines went up as well. The byline was developed during the Civil War as news correspondents were required to put their name on their telegraph dispatches. As papers were getting news faster than they ever had before, a circulation war was inevitable. As circulation wars heated up, newspapers were in competition to get the best news first. The wire services became born. Edward W. Scripps and William Randolph Hearst developed news services.

Scripps started the Associated Press in 1907 and Hearst started the International News Service in 1909. As the country and its settlers realized their manifest destiny, the news services became very important to national news in city papers. After that point not too many events happened that really shaped the newspaper world. The age of the internet and computers has been the first thing to change newspapers in a long time.

Now with the internet, the world is at everyone's fingertips. Never before had people had access to all of the information that they have now. It is going to be very interesting to see what is going to be done next.

Bibliography

Black, Jay; Bryant, Jennings; Thompson, Susan. Introduction to Media Communication. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. 1998. pp. 113-147. Stephens, Mitchell. 'History of Newspapers'. For Collier's Encyclopedia. web 's%20 page. htm.