History of Media Text Юс-11 07.04. А-11 Св-11 Ст-11 08.04. Са-11 Гд-11 09.04.

History of the media

America's earliest media audiences were quite small. These were the colonies’ upper class and community leaders - the people who could read and who could afford to buy newspapers. The first regular newspaper was the Boston News-letter, a weekly started in 1704 by the city's postmaster, John Campbell. Like most papers of the time, it published shipping information and news from England. Most Americans, out in the fields, rarely saw a newspaper. They depended on travelers or passing townsmen for this news

When rebellious feelings against Britain began to spread in the 1700s, the first battles were fought in the pages of newspapers and pamphlets. Historians consider the birth of America's free-press tradition to have begun with the 1734 trial of John Peter Zenger. Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, had boldly printed stories that attacked and insulted Sir William Cosby, the colony' unpopular royal governor.

Cosby ordered Zenger's arrest on a charge of seditious libel. As the King's representative, royal governors had the power to label any report they disliked — true or not — "libelous," or damaging to the government's reputation and promoting public unrest. Zenger's lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, argued that "the truth of the facts" was reason enough to print a story. The American jury agreed, ruling that Zenger had described Cosby's administration truthfully.

Perhaps one of America's greatest political journalists was one of its first, Thomas Paine. Paine's stirring writings, urging independence made him the most persuasive "media" figure of the American Revolution against Britain in 1776. His pamphlets sold thousands of copies and helped mobilize the rebellion.

By the early 1800s, the United States had entered a period of swift technological progress that would mark the real beginning of "modern media." The inventions of the steamship, the railroad and the telegraph brought communications out of the age of windpower and horses. The high-speed printing press was developed, driving down the cost of printing. Expansion of the educational system taught more Americans to read and sparked their interest in the world