Page 69 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

P1: IPI/IBE/IRR/GYQ
10:39
August 13, 2002
CY101-Bimber
CY101-02
0 521 80067 6
Information Revolutions
No journalistic news ethic yet existed, and the content reflected this
and the circumscribed subscribership. Postcolonial papers paid little
attention to public information and the sort of news necessary to creating
and sustaining a public sphere. In Irving Fang’s words, the colonial and
postcolonial newspaper in the United States was “so dear [expensive]
that the average person did not see a copy of a newspaper and possibly
might not have even been aware of the existence of such a thing as a
newspaper.” 43
These “Dark Ages” of journalism, as one observer puts it, were to
change dramatically in the 1820s and ’30s with the rise of the “penny
papers,” a new breed of newspaper aimed at a mass readership and
costing one-sixth the going rate of six cents for traditional papers. 44
These new papers carried information about societal affairs and com-
munity activities as well as crime and other matters of popular inter-
est. Moreover, they addressed political affairs, carrying reporting mixed
with opinion about issues and public matters. Many established a new
brand of political coverage by assigning correspondents to Washington.
For the first time in the history of the United States, citizens with ac-
cess to a newspaper could regularly obtain information about poli-
tics. They could read the text of a presidential address, a congressional
speech, or a government document; in addition, they could follow first-
hand coverage of political affairs or be apprised of party notices and
bulletins. 45 To be sure, the revolution of the penny press did not kill
off the party paper, which remained viable at least through the Civil
War; nor did it mean that the press abruptly became politically neu-
tral. By mid-century, many papers were still partisan. But the con-
tent and role of the paper in American life had been fundamentally
changed.
These changes in content were accompanied by an explosion in the
number of media businesses and the total circulation of newspapers. A
number of estimates are available for this growth, and while these vary
somewhat, all indicate a very rapid expansion. Irving Fang finds that the
number of newspaper businesses grew from 37 weeklies and no dailies
at the time of the revolution to 650 weeklies and 65 dailies by 1830,

43
Irving Fang, A History of Mass Communication: Six Information Revolutions (Boston:
Focal Press, 1997), p. 52.
44
Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism – A History of Newspapers in the United States
through 260 Years: 1690 to 1950 (New York: Macmillan, 1950).
45
Fang, A History of Mass Communication,p.52.

52