Summary Of Discovering The News By Michael Schudson

Mid-term paper: book review of « Discovering the news: a social history of American newspapers »
In « Discovering the news: a social history of American newspapers », Michael Schudson warns the reader before hand: this book is not meant to express an opinion about the objectivity of American newspapers… This book is rather meant to question why and how the issue of objectivity appeared in the field of journalism. Throughout his book, Schudson therefore dresses a portrait of the evolution of American newspapers, from the very beginnings of the Penny Press to the end of the 1970’s.
1) Egalitarianism and the Revolution of the Penny Press
His account of the evolution of American newspapers starts with the emergence of the Penny Press in the 1830’s.
The commercial papers became more self-conscious: it was the beginning of the Penny press. As expected, the Penny press was sold for a single penny and revolutionized the field of journalism by opening to mass-distribution. As a matter of fact, if subscription fees used to be the most solid source of financing for newspapers before the 1830’s, the Penny Press introduced a new way of selling newspapers. Hawked in the streets by “newsboys”, the Penny press soon circulated in Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore after rising at first in New-York. By opening itself and becoming more accessible to the people, American newspapers gained a new audience that represented a huge breach for advertisers. Financed by advertising, the newspapers no longer had to rely on financing from political parties and therefore gained their independence. Advertisers kept their influence but clearly had to widen their target from business advertising to advertising for all including “normal
In the second part of his book, Schudson shows how the role of reporter became considered as a full-time and esteemed job. If the writer argues that this professionalization of journalism came with an emphasis on facts, it also paradoxically is linked to the idea that reporters at the time not only reported facts, but also tried to provide the reader with entertainment. This desire to tell stories and bring “color” to the news had its roots in the reporter’s desire to differentiate himself from other reporters, therefore creating his own style and unique way of delivering the news. Keeping in mind that objectivity is the key subject of this book, it would be fair to assume that objectivity clearly wasn’t a priority in the 1880’s. Nevertheless, the author introduces the idea that the conception of objectivity wasn’t the same at the end of the 19th century than it is now. The depicted evolutions in the field of journalism are linked to the emergence of realism and the growing importance of science. Reporters considered themselves as scientific analysts, legitimating their “storytelling” thanks to the idea of observation and scientific