CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

Civil War America: An Intimate History

Civil War America: An Intimate History

Introduction

The Civil War played a vital role in the changing role of journalism and journalists in American society, but the stage was set for change well before the guns thundered at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, in 1861. The newspapers of the early 19th century bore little resemblance to their modern counterparts. Largely supported by political groups and expensive subscriptions, their circulations were usually limited to a few thousand people or less. Content was mostly composed of highly partisan editorial opinion addressing the topics of the day. Coverage of current events was limited and was generally buried on the inside pages of the paper (Andrews, 1955).

This began to change in the 1840s, thanks in part to innovations in technology. The most important new development was the telegraph. Previously, news of faraway events could take days, weeks, or even months to travel to the cities of the United States. The telegraph reduced this time significantly. The Mexican-American War, fought from 1846 to 1848, became the first American war where a person living in New York City or Philadelphia could stay largely up-to-date on events as they occurred. In addition to the telegraph, new types of printing presses and new printing techniques dramatically increased the speed with which copies of newspapers could be produced while reducing costs, allowing publishers to reach a much broader audience each day (Andrews, 1955).

Discussion

Technological innovations are only a part of the story, however. A significant portion of the credit for reinventing the American newspaper belongs to James Gordon Bennett, perhaps the greatest innovator in the history of journalism. Bennett founded the New York Herald in 1835 and served for decades as its publisher and editor. Bennett disdained the papers of his day as elitist, and he made it his goal to attract as many readers as possible. To start, he charged only two cents for a copy of his paper, and eventually he reduced the cost to one penny. At a price that low, daily newspapers could fit within the budget of almost all Americans (Andrews, 1970).

The Herald's coverage was also designed to stimulate readership. While Bennett did not dispense with opinion pieces, he moved them in the paper and instead used the front page exclusively for news. Bennett based his choice of coverage on what he thought would interest the largest number of people, which often meant that the most sensational stories grabbed the headlines. Because news-gathering was expensive, Bennett formed a partnership with other New York papers to share costs, and thus the Associated Press was born. Bennett also developed entirely new areas of coverage. His boxing stories made the Herald the first newspaper in the country to have a sports section. Bennett also incorporated daily coverage of the stock market into the Herald, even coining the terms "bull" and "bear" market (Andrews, 1970).

Thanks to these and numerous other innovations, the Herald became the most widely read newspaper in America, with a circulation ...