(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
occupation. All this help to reflect the social realities. Positivist method reveals news
partisanship; this emphasizes the objectiveness of news. Autonomous journalist in an
organization can/should write objective news. Media is independent. News is the reality.
Journalism is an autonomous/free/distinct profession. Therefore news should be handled and
analyzed separately and it should reflect “what and how” of an event. Media is the 4 th Estate
and can fulfill this function (Özer, 2008).
Partisan Press in History
Lippmann introduces four stages in the development of journalism. In the first stage
press is exclusively owned by the government. During the second stage press is under the
control of parties. In the third stage press is free of parties’ and government’s control and
becomes a profit making organization. The fourth stage which falls on I. World War
professionalism arises (Quoted by Schudson, 1978: 40). These stages should be completed by
the addition of “partisan press’s return all around the world in 2000’s. However partisan press
period is equal to Lippmann’s second stage.
During the War of Independence in USA, several newspapers appeared, had a huge
impact and played an important role, the partisan is supposed to appear during this period.
When English Military Forces invaded the country Boston Gazette played an important role
(Jeanneney, 2006: 56). This is the same period where politics entered the press. In these
periods it is hard to be objective for newspapers than being partisan (Schudson, 2003). There
are moderate newspapers as well as royalist. In 1775 the war started and newspapers were
forced to choose their sides: they had to be radical patriotic or loyal royalist; there was no
other choice. The war affected the patriotic and the conservative press however royalist press
disappeared a little later.
Reformist newspapers reserved an important number of pages for profitable ads during
the war. Patriotic newspapers had 8 thousand readers and at the end of the revolution
American media grows stronger by the emergence of multiple books, magazines and
newspapers. Press had been through a challenge all this time and won out (Sandman et.al.,
1972: 30-31). Views are shared about the huge contribution of newspapers to American
Revolution even this revolution could not happen without newspapers (Jeanneney, 2006: 55).
After the revolution class distinction became sharper. There is American aristocracy
on one side requiring for a strong and central government power: they call themselves
federalists. On the other side there are farmers and wage earners supporting the federation
formed by local government: they are called republicans. The constitution is of value to
powerful. Thereby newspapers had to choose one side again as it used to be during the
529