Denis Mc Quail states in 'Mass
Communication Theory' that it was almost two hundred years after the invention
of printing before what we now recognize as a prototypical newspaper could be
distinguished from the handbills, pamphlets and newsletters of the late 16th
and early 17th centuries.
According to Mc Quail the
newspaper was more of an innovation-the invention of a new literary, social and
cultural form-even if it might not have been so perceived at the time. Its distinctiveness,
compared with other forms of cultural communication, lies in its orientation to
the individual reader, reality-orientation, utility, disposability, secularity
and suitability for the needs of a new class: town-based business and
professional people. Its novelty consists not in its technology or manner of
distribution, but in its functions for a distinct class in a changing and more
liberal social-political climate.
Later history of the newspaper
can be told either as a series of struggles, advances and reverses in the cause
of liberty or as a more continuous history of economic and technological progress.
The most important phase in press history started after the entrance into the modern
definition of the newspaper. Mc Quail has listed the qualifications of a
newspaper as follows:
- Regular and frequent appearance
- Commodity form
- Informational content
- Public sphere functions
- Urban, secular audience
- Relative freedom
Genres of newspaper according to
Mc Quail:
- The political press
- The prestige press
- The commercial newspaper
Stanley J. Baran and Dennis K.
Davis has stated in 'Mass Communication Theory' that in the mid and late
nineteenth century, popular demand for cheap media content drove the
development of new media such as the penny press. High-speed printing presses
and other technological advancement made it practical to mass produce the
printed word at very low cost. Urban newspapers boomed all along the East Coast
and in major trading centers across the United States . Newspaper
circulation wars broke out and led to development of yellow journalism, the
irresponsible side of the penny press.
In 1700, Benjamin Harris
published the first American newspaper, Publick Occurrences both Foreign and
Domestick, which contained material offensive to the ruling power. The paper
was suppressed after one issue. Fourteen years would pass before another
attempt would surface. In 1704, the Boston News Letter was published by John
Campbell.
Competition grew as the number of
newspaper goes up.
A Joseph R. Dominick presented
in 'The Dynamics of Mass Communication', several conditions had to exist before
a mass press could come into existence:
- A printing press had to be invented that would produce copies quickly and cheaply.
- Enough people had to know how to read in order to support such a pres.
- A 'mass audience' had to be present.
The Penny Press, Yellow
Journalism and the birth of Mass Newspapers:
Dominick has identified the four
changes during the period of Penny Press (1833-1860):
- The basis of economic support for newspapers.
- The pattern of newspaper distribution.
- The definition of what constituted news.
- The techniques of news collection.
Then Yellow Journalism
(1880-1905) brought enthusiasm, energy, and spirit to the practice of
journalism, along with aggressive reporting and investigative stories.
Although the newspaper press already had a long history, it
was only towards the end of the nineteenth century that newspapers escaped from
the constraints of localism, elitism or sectionalism (political or religious)
and became a medium 'for the masses', although were still mainly large urban
populations. The formal study of the newspaper has its main roots in German
universities early in the twentieth century under the heading of Zeitungswissenschaft. (Mc Quail 4)
McQuail, Denis. Mc Quail's Reader in Mass Communicatioin
Theory.London: Sage Publications,2004.
