GETTING THE NEWS
In the 1920's until the start of WW II the main source of our news for most people was the newspaper. Moderate sized cities often had two daily newspapers, one in the morning and one in the evening. In my city they were the the "Times Union" and the "Knickerbocker News". Large metropolitan cities like New York and Chicago had three or more papers. Multiple newspapers gave the reader the opportunity to choose a paper that had similar views to theirs.
Most kids that wanted to earn money had a paper route. My route had 55 subscribers in about a 20 block area. The limitation of the number of subscribers a route would have was how many Sunday papers you could reasonably carry. You would cover your route early in the morning and many times your customer would be standing on the porch in their pajamas waiting for the paper. The daily paper cost 3 cents, the Sunday edition 10 cents and you would collect for the papers each Saturday.
The newspapers had their own solution on how to handle late breaking news. If you were a newsboy and your family was lucky enough to have a telephone, the newspaper would call and tell you to go out to the "extra" corner because they were issuing an Extra Edition. A news truck would pull up and a worker on the tailgate would toss out a bundle of papers. It was than your job to run the streets to pedal the extra edition. I can still hear them hollering, "Extra paper, extra paper, Lindberg baby was kidnapped" or "Joe Louis KOs Primo Carnero in the 6th." People would dash out to the street with cash in hand to buy your papers. Extra editions were rare and people were hungry for up to date news. There was a side benefit of young boys having newspaper routes. It gave them a legitimate reason to bug thier parents to have a bike. You NEEDED it for business. A bike meant they could carry more papers. In the hard days of the depression every dollar coming in the home was precious. It generally worked.
New technology - the radio! Up until the mid 20s newspapers had almost a monopoly on news distribution. New technology was being developed. A new device called the radio was available and becoming popular. Radios in addition to broadcasting entertainment started broadcasting news events and developed special news features. Radios did not become popular overnight. Several factors slowed down their popularity. Early radios had a problem with interference causing static. In the evening and night hours reception was better with less static. Early radio broadcasting range was limited to the wattage output of the broadcast station. The more watts output the larger the broadcast area could be reached. Radios were heavy. Radio chassis were made of metal. They were bulky and contained many components such as vacuum tubes, tuners, amplifiers, speakers and other exotic parts. As a result radios were rather large and heavy their use limited to the home. Portable radios were being developed. Wireless sets using batteries were still out in the future.
Early radios were becoming popular. With the advent of short wave the range was greatly improved. It was becoming possible to receive news from around the world almost instantaneously.
Kids in these days not having things like X boxes and I pods, focused on the new emerging technology of radio. Almost every kid had a homemade crystal set.
During the decade up until the start of WW II, radio and radio station technology progressed rapidly to the point that radio was a reliable source for news. The era spawned such news commentators as Harry Von Zell , John Scott Trotter, H.V. Kaltenburn and the legendary Walter Winchell - Remember his famous opening, "Hello Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea...", and his unique delivery style?
There was one other resource in obtaining news. Most theaters in addition to showing silent or moving pictures produced news features like Movie Tone news. These were 5 or 10 minute spots of world news. During the war these spots mostly concentrated on the progress of the war. This was the preview of both "seeing and hearing he news". This was almost a training ground for what was to come. After the end of hostilities on August 14, 1945 radios continued to be fine tuned but there was a big leap in communication technology that would change the way people received the news. Like the old saying, "You ain't seen nothing yet."...... Seeing the news was here to stay!
TELEVISION IS HERE!
Very rapidly the public developed a love affair with this new medium of communication.
No enlargements available on the animations
Shortly after WW II a new technology was introduced and made available to the public. Television! Television not only offered an additional way to access news it also changed the landscape. TV antennas and dishes began to appear on homes and business buildings. In addition to the outside antennas Internal antennas could be used inside buildings. The first were referred to as "bunny ears". Other more sophisticated antennas and devices were perfected that matched the progress being made on television sets. Early sets were only produced a black and white picture. One of the more important features was the test pattern. In some areas reception was poor and fine tuning could be enhanced using varying antennas arrangements adjusted by watching the test pattern. It wasn't unusual to enter someone's home and see a coat hanger as a tv antenna or a pair of bunny ears located in strange positions such as the ceiling, laying sideways in the corner or whatever position produced the best picture quality.
Even though there were only 3 channels available early on, television spawned a whole raft of new celebrities and shows. Television was mainly about entertainment. Now we could see personalities we only heard before on radio. Shows like I Love Lucy, Your Show of Shows, Dragnet, Ed Sullivan Show, Kukla Fran and Ollie, just a whole host of shows with their stars. Many can be viewed today in retrospect.
It was only natural that news programming was offered in this new entertainment medium. Early on news programs were only available in a 15 minute time slot about seven PM each evening. This changed quickly as news broadcast time was expanded and "News Breaks" were introduced. Some of the early commentators had names like Bob Jamieson of ABC, The legendary Edward R. Murrow at CBS and Huntley Brinkley of NBC and Walter Winchell on Sunday evenings. These people become our friends and guests in our living rooms. In the early years TV programming was only available in "natural black and white. TV sets were in the 6 to 11" screen size. This changed quickly as screen sizes increased unheard size of 27" Progress came fast. It seemed like in no time color TV was available. Sets became better and larger. Picture quality was vastly improved. Combination sets were offered that included the TV, a radio and phonograph. Some of the combination sets came in ornate fine wood cabinets A new reliable news source was available in attractive cabinets in "living color". The family moved from the kitchen to eat their meals on TV trays in front of the TV. TV dinners became a new industry.
There is an additional modern day source for news. The Internet. Early Internet websites have yielded to a new phenomena called blogs. Blogs are special interest Internet postings. Some exhibit extraordinary bias while others exhibit radical viewpoints and a great array of topics, some less than desirable. The news media seems to cast blogs as news. They are not news sources but do have a dynamic influence on the news.
POST SCRIPT
While preparing this historical perspective on sources of news, the research and stoking my memory also gives me a perspective of how the quality of news reporting has changed. Early on when radio and TV Were in their formative years, news reporting was generally restricted to a 15 minute period, in the evening. The news was generally reported in more or less a straight forward respectful manner. There was some commentary but it seemed it was less radical compared with modern news reporting. The present 24 hour news cycle has created an insatiable need for news to fill up the many hours of news reporting. News is now yielding to a new name - News Entertainment.
Some of my observations concerning the news processes:
- The main stream media is lazy.
It seems they focus on a particular story and repeat it so many times in a 24 hour news cycle it becomes mind numbing. Many of the competing channels pick up the same story. Each time the TV is turned on the same story is being repeated over and over again. Some channels have several segments or features during the day. Each one has has it's own star or talking head that repeats the "story of the day". The following days the same story is still the news of the day possibly with nuances, suppositions and commentary added. The same story is picked up on almost every TV channel, rather national or local. The newspaper also will feature that story.
A few examples: The Nancy Hallaway Story - the teen missing in Aruba, The OJ Simpson Story, The Laci Peterson Story, The Michael Vick Scandal. All received the same treatment. This is not to infer that the stories aren't important or of interest to viewers. But there are 3 billion people in the world. Surely the media with just a little work and effort could find a few more equally important and interesting stories to report in such a large a population.
- The news media is developing a "kick a person when they are down tendency"
At times they belittle a person in the news , piling on ridicule and unflattering suppositions:
A few examples: Anna Nichol, Nicky Hilton, Richard Jewell, and on and on. It seems that main stream media is turning into a gossip column.
- Under estimating the viewers intelligence.
I love it when they present an important event like a speech by the President. The commentator comes on following the event and starts telling us what the speaker said and in effect repeating the same speech as if the viewer didn't understand.
- News events at times become nothing but a "photo op" for the politicians.
At the breaking story there is a "News conference." The governor is introduced. He is followed by the State Congressional representative. Then it may be the State Attorney followed by the local sheriff and local police chief. After all of this ceremony, the person that is conducting the "real" news conference reports what is happening. What should have been a few minute news spot turns into a 20 minute presentation.
- Fairness in the media.
It is generally recognized that the media has strong biases. Fox News is generally considered as conservative. CNN as liberal. The greatest share of Media is characterized as having a liberal bias.
Some outlets, In their attempt to appear fair and balanced will invite guests with opposing views. The anchor (or moderator) interviews the guests. Many of these sessions become shouting match with gross discourtesies, both sides talking at the same time, interruptions and rudeness.
- That's probably enough of the negative.
Overall, the news media does an adequate job in reporting the news. It does a lot of things acceptably. In a general sense they keep viewers informed and that should be their first task. Having said that, the news media needs to strive for an improved balance of mayhem, gossip, innuendo and entertainment. Above all eliminate the bias in reporting and commentary!
- To misquote George Will:
"Most Americans are not as gullible as a few Americans think". When the news media recognizes that fact, the quality of news reporting may improve.
Louis Bagnato
September 6, 2007Return to the Paper Industry Web
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