Essential Journalism and Media Writing - It works - Казанский ...

these early magazines were aimed at a specialized audience - one that was educated, literate,and primarily urban. They contained a variety of articles dealing with the arts, practicalscience, and politics, and a list of authors who contributed to them would include most of themajor poets, essayists and statesmen of the period. Their overall impact was to encourageliterary and artistic expression and to unify the colonies during America's struggle forindependence from England.Benjamin Day was only 22 years old when he developed the idea of a newspaper for themasses. Day probably had no idea that he was starting a revolution in the communicationsindustry when he launched his New York Sun in 1833. Nonetheless, journalism would beprofoundly altered by his new approach. Several conditions had to exist before a mass presscould come into existence: a printing press had to be invented that would produce copiesquickly and cheaply; enough people had to know how to read in order to support such a press;a "mass audience" had to be present.Day had seen others fail in their attempts to market a mass-appeal newspaper.Nonetheless, he forged ahead. Day's paper would be a daily and would sell for a penny. Thiswas a significant price reduction when compared to the other New York City, Boston, andPhiladelphia dailies, which went for six cents a copy. (The price of six cents was also typicalfor many weekly papers in other parts of the country. Since they came out less frequently,these papers were cheaper than the Sun on an annual basis. Thus although the penny press didnot mark a drop in the overall price of American newspapers, it did signal a decrease in theprice of urban dailies.) Local happenings, sex, violence, features, and human-interest storieswould constitute his content. The first issue contained news of a suicide, police and crimeitems, shipping information, weddings, obituaries, and feature stories. Conspicuously absentwere the stodgy political debates that still characterized many of the six-cent papers. Within sixmonths the Sun achieved a circulation of approximately 8000 issues, far ahead of its nearestcompetitor. Day's gamble had paid off, and the penny press was launched.As newspapers moved into the last half of the twentieth century, several trends in theircontent were apparent. Most obvious was a change in newspaper typography and layout, allwith the ultimate goal of making the modern newspaper easier to read. Photography and colorwere being used more liberally, and many papers showed a less to depart from the typicaleight-column format that has been traditional, many papers were carrying more of what mightbe called "feature" stories. Sections entitled "Life," "Lifestyle," "Living," and "Leisure" werebecoming more as papers blended more of this material with their traditional "hard" news.Ex.1. Answer the following questions:1. Who invented the printing press and introduce the movable type to the western world?2. What is known about Johann Gutenberg?3. Which benefits did books printing bring in life?4. What did early forerunners of the newspaper carry and what were they replaced by?5. What were first magazines like?6. Which conditions were necessary for mass press to come into existence?7. How much did the Day`s newspaper cost?8. What was the Day`s paper content like?9. How are modern newspapers altered?44