The Commercialization of News in the Nineteenth Century
by Gerald J. Baldasty
University of Wisconsin Press, 1992 Cloth: 978-0-299-13400-6 | eISBN: 978-0-299-13403-7 | Paper: 978-0-299-13404-4 Library of Congress Classification PN4888.C59B34 1992 Dewey Decimal Classification 071.309034
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The Commercialization of News in the Nineteenth Century traces the major transformation of newspapers from a politically based press to a commercially based press in the nineteenth century. Gerald J. Baldasty argues that broad changes in American society, the national economy, and the newspaper industry brought about this dramatic shift.
Increasingly in the nineteenth century, news became a commodity valued more for its profitablility than for its role in informing or persuading the public on political issues. Newspapers started out as highly partisan adjuncts of political parties. As advertisers replaced political parties as the chief financial support of the press, they influenced newspapers in directing their content toward consumers, especially women. The results were recipes, fiction, contests, and features on everything from sports to fashion alongside more standard news about politics.
Baldasty makes use of nineteenth-century materials—newspapers from throughout the era, manuscript letters from journalists and politicians, journalism and advertising trade publications, government reports—to document the changing role of the press during the period. He identifies three important phases: the partisan newspapers of the Jacksonian era (1825-1835), the transition of the press in the middle of the century, and the influence of commercialization of the news in the last two decades of the century.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Gerald J. Baldasty is associate professor of communications at the University of Washington in Seattle.
REVIEWS
“Baldasty argues that commercialization set the course of journalism, and he offers detailed samples from twenty-five papers, urban and rural, from every region. The Commercialization of News is a fresh reading of the evidence as to how Americans became a news-obsessed people.”—Thomas C. Leonard, University of California, Berkeley
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. American Political Parties and the Press
Chapter Two. New Directions in American Journalism
Chapter Three. Advertising and the Press
Chapter Four. Newspapers as Businesses
Chapter Five. Shaping and Packaging the News: Luring Readers and Advertisers
Chapter Six. The Commercialization of News
Appendix 1. Content Analysis Scheme
Appendix 2. Content Analysis Tables
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
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The Commercialization of News in the Nineteenth Century
by Gerald J. Baldasty
University of Wisconsin Press, 1992 Cloth: 978-0-299-13400-6 eISBN: 978-0-299-13403-7 Paper: 978-0-299-13404-4
The Commercialization of News in the Nineteenth Century traces the major transformation of newspapers from a politically based press to a commercially based press in the nineteenth century. Gerald J. Baldasty argues that broad changes in American society, the national economy, and the newspaper industry brought about this dramatic shift.
Increasingly in the nineteenth century, news became a commodity valued more for its profitablility than for its role in informing or persuading the public on political issues. Newspapers started out as highly partisan adjuncts of political parties. As advertisers replaced political parties as the chief financial support of the press, they influenced newspapers in directing their content toward consumers, especially women. The results were recipes, fiction, contests, and features on everything from sports to fashion alongside more standard news about politics.
Baldasty makes use of nineteenth-century materials—newspapers from throughout the era, manuscript letters from journalists and politicians, journalism and advertising trade publications, government reports—to document the changing role of the press during the period. He identifies three important phases: the partisan newspapers of the Jacksonian era (1825-1835), the transition of the press in the middle of the century, and the influence of commercialization of the news in the last two decades of the century.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Gerald J. Baldasty is associate professor of communications at the University of Washington in Seattle.
REVIEWS
“Baldasty argues that commercialization set the course of journalism, and he offers detailed samples from twenty-five papers, urban and rural, from every region. The Commercialization of News is a fresh reading of the evidence as to how Americans became a news-obsessed people.”—Thomas C. Leonard, University of California, Berkeley
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. American Political Parties and the Press
Chapter Two. New Directions in American Journalism
Chapter Three. Advertising and the Press
Chapter Four. Newspapers as Businesses
Chapter Five. Shaping and Packaging the News: Luring Readers and Advertisers
Chapter Six. The Commercialization of News
Appendix 1. Content Analysis Scheme
Appendix 2. Content Analysis Tables
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE