Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 by Rich Cameron
  www.rcameron.com/journalism/100/online/2-lect-modernpress.html

Introduction

It is tough to discern history when it is too fresh, and the last fifty years of history may still be too fresh. Rather than give the last 50 years a nickname or classify it into an era, it is easier to simply look at some of the key elements of the press by decade.

 

The 1950s

World War II pretty much dominated the 1940s -- and we'll discuss that beryl when we look at history through the eyes of war. So we get to the 1950s. The mood of the country was sublime as the economy was good and we went about reconstructing what was normal. Women had filled in in the workplace while men were off to war. As the men came back most of the women returned to the the home, but a lot of women stayed in the workplace.

The mainstream newspapers of the day were fairly conservative in their coverage of news, pretty much accepting authoritative sources' versions of news. Newspapers tended to do a good job, too, of separating opinion from news and reserving opinion for their opinion pages.

Television came on to the scene and started competing for audiences with radio and newspapers . . . and television was winning. Newspapers started noticing a decline in readership.

This was also time of growth of newspaper chains in the country. A trend away from local family-owned newspapers began and continues through today.

The 1960s

Mainstream newspapers remained conservative, but with the growth of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, an antiestablishment movement arose in the country. Along with it came an alternative press.

An example of conservatism would be when John F. Kennedy was president. It was learned that the USSR was installing nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from the Florida coast. The country was already frightened about the threat of a nuclear war with the USSR. When reporters for major newspapers in the country got a whiff of the story Kennedy called their publishers and asked that the stories be killed or delayed while he negotiated a removal of the missiles. The papers complied. Can you imagine a major newspaper today sitting on such a hot story? Unlikely.

And there were the alternative newspapers, such as the LA Free Press and the Berkeley Barb. One paper wanted to publish the real names and addresses of all the undercover narcotics officers on the west coast. The government sought a restraining order to prevent this because of the clear danger it would present to those officers and their families. But the courts would not restrict the papers from doing so. Another time a newspaper wanted to print the blueprints to building a nuclear bomb -- something that was readily available in the Library of Congress.

The 1960s also saw the decline of the general interest magazine in this country. Unlike the special interest magazines of today, the high circulation magazines through the 1950s were those which appealed to a wider audience. Perhaps the most successful general excellence magazine left today is Reader's Digest.

 

The 1970s

The decade of the 1970s will be remembered mostly for the war between president Richard Nixon and the press. The animosity was strong on both sides. And during his reelection campaign some of Nixon's overzealous representatives got caught breaking into and bugging the Democratic National Headquarters. The attempted cover-up of the crime that followed led to the infamous Watergate coverage that ended with Nixon becoming the only president to resign while in office.

The Watergate story is compelling enough and was made into a movie you'll watch as a part of this class -- All the President's Men. But it was just a first in a series of investigative reports of government misdoings: Contra-gate, File-Gate, Monica-Gate, Gate-Gate. By any measure the press was not the conservative docile product of the 1950s.

But there were other trends that caught on in the 1970s. One was the practice of participatory journalism. Reporters, instead of reporting what others had to say about their experiences, would participate in an activity and report it from a firsthand point of view. For instance, instead of interviewing someone who had just dove out of an airplane with a parachute, the reporter would take up skydiving and report from personal experience the thrill of jumping out of a plane.

Newspapers also had to compete heavily with television news, which was becoming more sophisticated. The Vietnam War, for instance, was the first war that was shown in the home every night at dinner time.

And continuing with the growing trend of a decline of newspaper readership newspapers across the country started folding. Big cities used to have multiple competing daily newspapers, but today few do. And when a paper today folds, it is more likely to be an afternoon paper, that is, one that comes out in the afternoon. Television and other forms of entertainment started demanding and getting our attention in the afternoon and evening. Our newspaper reading habits have changed to where we mostly likely would prefer to read a morning paper.

 

The 1980s

Three major trends stand out from the 1980s.

• USA Today newspaper came on to the scene and has a made a major impact in newspapers. Most newspapers would deny the influence, but the splashy color, the shorter stories, the use of graphics, and the inclusion of large weather maps is all part of the USA Today trend.
  
  
• It was not enough that newspapers were being swallowed up by newspaper chains, but in the 1980s the chains started swallowing up other chains. Media mergers are still big news today.
  
  
• General interest magazines may have been on their way out in the 1960s, but the industry adapted, partially because of improved technology. Niche magazines --magazines aimed at smaller, more specific audiences-- began to catch on. Advertisers loved them. Instead of advertising to mass audiences, many of which would not be interested in the product, advertisers could now deliver their messages to audiences most likely to be interested.
  

The 1990s

Of course, the big story of the 1990s for print journalism -- and all of journalism -- is the Internet. Media companies are in business to make money, and everyone in the media is trying to figure out how to make money on the Internet. But even if they can't figure out how to do that, they know they need to establish a presence on the Internet until they do.

Media mergers have gotten bigger and bolder and we've seen a blurring of the entertainment and news functions of the media that disturbs many in the business.

And a minor, but significant trend in journalism is a movement called public interest journalism. Because of the public's declining participation in the political movement, coupled with many of the problems in society, some newspapers have decided it is no longer appropriate to sit on the fence and report what is going on. Instead, they are taking a more proactive role in helping fix what is wrong in our society. They will sponsor meetings to bring editors and the public together, the bring politicians and the public together, to bring together different groups to talk about problems with the schools, etc. Then, of course, after creating the event, they cover it in their news pages.

 

Reading Assignment

You should be reading Chapter Two and Three in your textbook to get more information about newspapers and magazines.

Exercise

List one specific characteristic of the media from each of the decades discussed in this lecture.

Note that when submitting the answer start the subject line with:

J100x-L -- YourLastName -- Modern