The development of the newspaper and other forms of media in America is relatively a new innovation. During the 1700s, colonists and early Native Americans were not fortunate to have a newspaper at their disposal. For communication they relied of letters and word of mouth.
The history of the American media is linked to the history and development of the country. Early newspapers were used as community journals that connected colonists and helped unite them during the time of the American Revolution.
2. Present background information on America’s first newspapers.
Early newspapers were quite different than that of today’s papers. Early newspapers contained several things: very little news, essays, letters, and virtually anything that an editor could find to include in the paper.
3. Introduce several early (pre-Independence) newspapers.
There were several pre-Independence papers that are noteworthy:
Publick Occurrences, which is considered the first newspaper, was published in Boston on September 25, 1690. The publisher was Benjamin Harris and the printer was Richard Pierce. It filled only 3 of 4 six by ten-inch pages of a folded sheet of paper. The journalist stated in his first (and only) issue that he would issue the newspaper "once a month, or, if any Glut of Occurrences happen, oftener." Benjamin Harris's news was real news and was the first and last offered to Americans for many years. Publick Occurrences was brought to an end after only one issue by an outraged administration claiming that it contained "reflections of a very high order." It was printed without authority. An aroused bureaucracy issued a broadside warning against future publications of any kind without "license [sic] first obtained from those appointed by the Government to grant the same."
Boston News-Letter, America's first continuously-published newspaper, the Boston News-Letter published its first issue on April 24, 1704. John Campbell, a bookseller and postmaster of Boston, was its first editor, printing the newspaper on what was then referred to as a half-sheet. It originally appeared on a single page, printed on both sides and issued weekly. The paper was printed ‘by authority’ which meant that it had government approval. In the early years of its publication the News-Letter was filled mostly with news from London journals detailing the intrigues of English politics, and a variety of events concerning the European wars. The rest of the newspaper was filled with items listing ship arrivals, deaths, sermons, political appointments, fires, accidents and the like. The paper also contained financial and foreign news from English newspapers and recorded local births, deaths, and social events. It rarely challenged colonial authority because the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony retained the right to censor any of its contents.
The New-England Courant, first printed in 1721 by James Franklin, introduced coverage of political debate in its first issue. The paper presented the controversy surrounding smallpox inoculations, which were used for the first time in Boston that year to fight an epidemic. Cotton Mather, a prominent Congregational minister and scholar, supported inoculation; Franklin did not.
Pennsylvania Gazette first published in 1729 by Benjamin Franklin who made the most of this opportunity by publishing humorous social commentary under the pen name Silence Dogwood along with reports on political events.
New York Weekly Journal, which is most notable because it was the first paper to help establish the ‘truth as a defense’ rule that protects journalists from persecution. John Peter Zenger was charged with sedition on November 17, 1734 because of printed comments voicing dissatisfaction with colonial governor William Cosby. Zenger’s case did not go to trial until August 4, 1735 when attorney Andrew Hamilton defended Zenger and won the case.
4. Discuss the influence of newspapers during the American Revolution.
In 1773 colonists gathered in the house of a newspaper editor, Benjamin Edes of the Boston Gazette, to organize the Boston Tea Party—a protest against Parliament’s decision to tax tea imported to the colonies. Among the other leading newspapers in the struggle against British policies were the Massachusetts Spy, published by Isaiah Thomas, and John Holt's New York Journal. Two women, Sarah and Mary Katherine Goddard, published the Providence Gazette, another anti-British voice during these years. American patriot Samuel Adams, who often edited the Boston Gazette, organized the Committees of Correspondence, groups of colonists who garnered public support for independence. In 1776 the front pages of colonial papers carried the Declaration of Independence, an official validation of the fight for independence that had embroiled colonists and British soldiers for more than a year.
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