Journalism History: Reflection of the Past, Glimpse of the Future

 

Good journalists must strive to continue to learn and never forget, our history when reporting on current events. 

However, that can be a difficult promise to uphold when we, as journalists, don't learn our own history. 

Although I took journalism classes in high school, along with numerous classes about American history, I never learned the history about the most important value that all American's share. 

Free Speech. 

It was fascinating to learn the history about newspapers and journalism, starting in colonial America. Learning about how colonists had to abide by the British government's rules and regulations when writing and publishing their newspapers. This just shows how desperate early Americans were for freedom of speech. 

It was also very interesting to learn about the influential figures who suffered in the fight for free speech during the revolutionary war. People like James Franklin and John Peter Zenger who were jailed for what they published, which then lead to laws and policies being enforced in early America. 

I think it is extremely important to teach young journalists not just laws pertaining to their career, but how those laws came to be. I've appericate the freedoms I have as a citizen and as a journalist even more, now that I know the struggles and hardship people faced when striving for indepent, free-thinking journalists. 

I was also interested to learn about how Ben Franklin had to deliver coded messages in his published writing. Obviolusy, Ben Franklin is a very famous and influencional person when thinking about American history, but his journalistic contributions have been swept under the rug. 

Learning about the development of the distribution of newspapers was another fascinating aspect of journalistic history. I believe that the spread of unbias and factual news is the most important apsect of American democracy and it has been a core value since the beginning of our nation. Without this, Americans don't truly have freedom of speech. 

Before the development of the steamed-power printing press, early journalists had to physically print out their stories by hand, which was time-consuming and lead to a fast spread of news. 

With the development of the steamed-power printing press, news was able to be printed quickly and with less man-power which eventually lead to the ability to have the newspaper monopolies we see today. It amazed me how dedicated the journalists before before this invention, since they were forced to put so much work into publishing their writing, not just writing itself. 

After this invention, it seemed that the development of newspaper monopolies grew overnight. The New York Sun paper and the New York Herald started the rise of the empires which seems mirror the large newspapers we see today. 

The "Penny Press Era" also completely changed the way newspapers, so that its more similar to what we see today.  With the ability to sell newspapers for a singular penny, the companies were able to see the papers to everyone in the area, regardless of social class. This meant that the journalists and newspapers had to report their information in an unbiased manner to accommodate both political parties, which differed from the past when newspapers would publicly support one political candidate or party. 

The unbiased delivery of news is something we valued in American democracy for decades and decades. However, with the immediate delivery of news via the internet and social media, it seems that journalists no longer have time to digest their biases before reporting. Which, creates the illusion that we are traveling back in time, to the development of our countries values. 

Those who do not learn history are bound to repeat it.