Chapter 1 Summary: The Story of Journalism
This chapter concentrated on the history of journalism and its traditional history. There is a lengthy list of celebrated “newsroom heroes,” reporters, books, journalism movies, and more. According to this chapter, there are five legendary journalists that every reporter should know: Mark Twain, Nellie Bly, H.L. Mencken, Ernest Hemingway, and Hunter S. Thompson. America’s first newspaper was the Publick Occurrences. It was small and only printed on three pages with the fourth left blank for readers to add on and pass along. Although, the paper was shut down by the Governor after one issue. John Peter Zenger, an editor, was arrested for libel after printing accusations of official corruption in the New York Weekly Journal. After being put on trial the jury agreed with Zenger’s attorney that citizens have a right to criticize the government and Zenger was set free. The Bill of Rights was put in place for Congress to be unable to construct a law that would go against freedom of speech or the freedom of press. The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act that presses a heavy tax on “all printed matter.”
The News in the 19th century has conducted technical advances that has established a “new style of journalism.” The newspaper of the 1800’s consisted of long essays and secondhand gossip, but moving on to the 1900’s, there were changes to be made. Journalism took order in its craft and developed into entertainment for readers. Journalism took a turn to keep the interests of the people. The main changes in the 19th century: the emergence of the penny press, innovations in printing, and the rise of the modern newsroom. The penny pressed sold media to the masses for a penny a piece. Yellow Journalism allowed journalism to take off in a different way. Yellow Journalism was characterized by its loud headlines for example, “Blood in the fields, blood on the doorsteps, blood, blood, blood!”
The 20th century gave “the power of print” a reality check. Newspapers slowly started to lose the interests of citizens after the innovation of radio and television. Radios came first as it was just speech and music. By 1950, television took over with sound, sight, and timeliness. In the 1990’s came online news such as the internet. As a result, to newspapers being pushed out, they fought back with color, design, more coverage, and photos. Newspapers are still around but people are more likely to watch a video or listen to an audio.
Chapter 2 Summary: How Newsrooms Work
This chapter concentrated on the evolution of journalism. What is news and what makes it news. In every newsroom, there is what’s called news judgement: “the ability to determine which stories are most interesting and important to readers.” When choosing a story to run, it must have at least one of these values: impact, immediacy, proximity, prominence, novelty, conflict, or emotions. To understand how to grab the reader’s attention, understanding how to deliver is important. Everyone has different interests and consumers media in different ways. Delivery is important because many readers have short attention spans. If the headline doesn’t look interesting, who will read it? Also, you must know your audience. Survey them, analyze statistics and draw conclusions based on facts. Many media companies have consultants to monitor their readers.
How the news comes together
News stories come together in comparison to an assembly line. There are many departments within the newsroom that all work together to run a news story. The newsroom consists of copy editors/reporters, photographers, graphic designers, editorial boards and page designers. The publisher fixes over any department, under the publishers are managers, editors, reporters. Beyond the newsroom consists of advertising, production, and circulation that works to keep the business above water. Tools every reporter need: a notebook, digital voice recorder, computer, camera, and telephone. All of these tools are essential to help construct a news story.
Aja's Photography 