COM 13500 Introduction to Journalism

1. History #2 COM 13500 Introduction to Journalism

2. “Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” -Roger E. Chank, Cognitive Scientist

3. Today’s Concepts Two revolutionary War printers – Isaiah Thomas and Thomas paine First Amendment The Penny Press The Telegraph and the Associated Press

4. “Should the liberty of the press be once destroyed, farewell the remainder of our invaluable rights and privileges! We may next expect padlocks on our lips, fetters on our legs, and only our hands at liberty to slave for our worse than EGYPTIAN TASKMASTERS, OR—FIGHT OUR WAY TO CONSITUTIONAL FREEDOM. -Isaiah Thomas

5. Ran The Massachusetts Spy 1770 Leader in underground movement that was anti-British Wrote the first “war report” – though partisan as it was Became leading publisher after the war

6. Author of famous and wildly successful 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, which helped raise the cause of war Paine wouldn’t accept payment for it, he wrote only “for the cause” The same doctrine in Common Sense would six months later be significant in the Declaration of Independence.

8. The Penny Press Allowed other, less-affluent readers to pick up the newspaper reading habit, leading to a “mass audience” 1833 – The New York Sun by Benjamin Day becomes the first penny paper Was independent of any political party Day quote: “lay before the public, at a price well within the means of everyone, all the news of the day.”

9. The Penny Press Lots of local news, crime, features, and human-interest stories Profoundly impacted American journalism by changing the rules of the game – newspapers began to go after news Created “beat” reporters, or specialists

10. What hath God wrought? The Telegraph Invented in 1844 by Samuel Morse Made transmission of long distance news possible Used by the Sunto beat his rival penny papers Stimulated the growth of small town daily papers

11. Made possible by the telegraph. In 1848 New York newspaper publishers met to discuss the need for a shared news service. Agreed to share a correspondent in Boston. Wasn’t known as The Associated Press until the 1850’s. Lead to the “inverted pyramid style” of newswriting because the telegraph was not reliable. Remains in existence, and a global force in all platforms of news.