Mass media and American politics
The first newspapers appeared in major port cities such as Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Charleston in order to provide merchants with the latest trade news.
The most dramatic confrontation came in New York in 1734, where the governor brought John Peter Zenger to trial for criminal libel after his paper published some satirical attacks.
[2][3] The French and Indian war (1757–63) was the featured topic of many newspaper stories, giving the colonials a broader view of American affairs.
[5] Colonial newspaper networks played a major role in fomenting the American Revolution, starting with their attack on the Stamp Act of 1765.
"[7] The newspapers also printed and sold pamphlets, such as the phenomenally successful Common Sense (1776), which destroyed the king's prestige and jelled Patriot opinion overnight in favor of independence.
Two dozen men were charged with felonies for violating the Sedition Act, chiefly newspaper editors from the Jeffersonian Republican Party.
Thanks to Hoe's invention of high-speed rotary presses for city papers, and free postage for rural sheets, newspapers proliferated.
Top publishers, such as Horace Greeley, Whitelaw Reid, Schuyler Colfax, Warren Harding and James Cox were nominated on the national ticket.
After 1900, William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer and other big city politician-publishers discovered they could make far more profit through advertising, at so many dollars per thousand readers.
By becoming non-partisan they expanded their base to include the opposition party and the fast-growing number of consumers who read the ads but were less and less interested in politics.
Despite facing opposition from supporters of the gold standard, industrial progress, and financial conservatism, Bryan aimed to win the White House through a dramatic speaking campaign[15] Newspapers published transcripts of William Jennings Bryan's speech, gaining support from struggling farmers and laborers during the 1890s economic depression.
The media played a crucial role in shaping public opinion, with some outlets criticizing and others promoting Bryan's message.
They relied on their own investigative journalism reporting; muckrakers often worked to expose social ills and corporate and political corruption.
Muckraking magazines–notably McClure's–took on corporate monopolies and crooked political machines while raising public awareness of chronic urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, and social issues like child labor.
[19] Ray Stannard Baker, George Creel, and Brand Whitlock specialized in exposing corruption at the state and local levels.
Young Ronald Reagan, beginning a career in as a radio broadcaster and Hollywood star, was one of the few to match the right tone, nuance, and intimacy that Roosevelt had introduced.
The Federal Communications Commission ruled in the "Mayflower decision" in 1941 against the broadcasting of any editorial opinion, although political parties could still purchase airtime for their own speeches and programs.
The new social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, made use first of the personal computer and the Internet, and after 2010 of the smart phones to connect hundreds of millions of people, especially those under age 35.
By 2008, politicians and interest groups were experimenting with systematic use of social media to spread their message among much larger audiences than they had previously reached.
[25][26] As political strategists turn their attention to the 2016 presidential contest, they identify Facebook as an increasingly important advertising tool.
[28] Social media presence lets candidates: have direct access to voters, advertise for free, and fundraise, among other benefits.
Additionally, TikTok facilitated a false-registration drive for a Trump rally, amplified police brutality footage, and shared Black Lives Matter protests, showcasing its distinctive audiovisual vernacular, often disorienting and carefully edited.
[31] Researchers have analyzed political expression on TikTok since its inception, revealing a diverse, diffuse, and not nearly united community of millions of young people discovering the platform's capabilities and limits, despite its unique and strange nature.
The focus in the newsroom for mass media outlets shifted from policy to character, when addressing American political news.
Immediacy,[34] “the quality of bringing one into direct and instant involvement with something, giving rise to a sense of urgency or excitement,[35]” continued to be the focus of mass media, as represented by major networks like CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.
