History of Journalism and Bob Woodward

History of Journalism and Bob Woodward

Journalism is a discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying, and presenting news regarding current events, trends, issues and people. The certain individuals who practice journalism are called journalists. Journalism’s main goal in reporting events is to state who, what, when, where, why, and how, and to explain the significance of all. There are two main types of journalism which are print journalism and also broadcast journalism. Print journalism can include newspapers, news magazines, newsletters, general interest magazines, and online news pages. Next is broadcast journalism which actually merges off into two categories which are radio and television. Radio gathers the facts and the journalist are forced to convey the story with the help of interesting noises and background sounds. Television mainly relies on visual information to display and basically help tell the story. Through the use of the television it proves to help characterize the story with the use of on-camera interviews, interviews with people involved in the story, and pictures or video from where the story took place. Journalism has developed steadily over the past years and it is a part of society’s everyday life.

In America the first newspaper appeared in Boston in 1690, which was called Publick Occurrences. This paper was published without authority, its publisher was arrested, and all copies were destroyed. The first successful newspaper was the Boston News-Letter, which was started by John Campbell in 1704. Although it was heavily subsidized by the colonial government the experiment was a near-failure, with very limited circulation. Two more papers made their appearance in the 1720's, in Philadelphia and New York. By the eve of the Revolutionary War, about two dozen papers were issued at all the colonies, although Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania would remain the centers of American printing for many years. At war's end in 1783 there were forty-three newspapers in print which journalism played a vital role in the affairs of the new nation.

The industrial revolution, as it transformed all aspects of American life and society, dramatically affected newspapers. Both the numbers of papers and their paid circulations continued to rise and by1850 there were over 2,500 titles. It was during the Civil War the unprecedented demand for timely, accurate news reporting transformed American journalism into a force in the national life. Newspaper growth continued unabated in the postwar years, with over 11,000 different papers in 1880. By 1890 there was a new modern newspaper, which included bold headlines, illustrations, funny pages, and sports pages. The rise of "yellow journalism" also marks this era. By the 1910's, all the essential features of the modern newspaper had emerged.

In 1920 radio journalism was beginning and started in Pittsburgh broadcasting news on the hour every hour. In 1944 when the allies invaded Normandy, everybody heard the news on the radio. When France surrendered to the Nazis in the beginning of the Second World War, General Charles De Gaulle appealed to the people of France to resist the Nazis from a radio broadcast.

In the 1950's, television debuted, and television journalism started. In 1960 the Nixon-Kennedy debates were televised and were also on the radio. On the radio it sounded like Nixon was winning the debate,