Journalism and War the American Twin's

 This is an article I found by Don Bracken, the owner and creator of the History Publishing Company, about journalism's role in war through out history. I found it particularly interesting, because it is an article by a well know historian providing evidence supporting my percept of journalism during the American Revolution.

     "Passion was the main stuff of journalism long before the Civil War, the birthplace of modern American journalism. The Press of the American Revolution during the War and before it, was borne of it. Newspapers then were not as we know them today. Weekly advertising mediums they were, but they were primarily opinion pieces designed to protect interests or to provoke the readership. They were propaganda organs in the truest sense. They were virtual flagpoles of ideology from which the editor could wave his political flag. As tools of political activism, they often published articles of principles treating of various freedoms or governmental responsibilities, as the editors saw them to be, mostly by pseudonymous authors sometimes using names taken from the Greek or Roman classics like Cato or Ovid.

What news did exist was usually a local crime graphically treated, a poem perhaps, or a reference to a literary work or some happening from Europe that occurred months previously and brought to the editor’s notice by people arriving in town. Newspapers shared news too, for as fever rose in the colonies and happenings became more frequent the need to know took place and the sharing of news from paper to paper became more commonplace.

But news gathering during the war coverage was not organized, newspapers relied almost wholly on the chance arrival of private letters and of official and semi-official documents. News sources were scarce, but opinion was abundant and it covered both sides. Tory and patriot presses would fire verbal broadsides at each other’s interests and any newspaper hoping to maintain a dispassionate objectivity examining both sides of the issues, found themselves in a “no-man’s land” and was considered “on the other side.” Often the news was engineered, perhaps none so well as the ‘reportage’ of the Boston Massacre by the Boston Gazette."

This is the only part of Bracken's article that I felt was relevant to my point, but I found the entire article to be interesting. If you're interested to go deeper into the story, you can find it at: 

http://www.historypublishingco.com/articles_journalism_war.html

The Boston Gazette

This is a page of The Boston Gazette, printed on April 7, 1777
The Richard Maass Collection, Fales Library, NYU
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://maass.nyu.edu/images/001162s.jpg&imgrefurl=http://maass.nyu.edu/resources/r1/lesson_plans/work2.html&usg=__G31L9HXZiSCOrxEkicBTz3DZY7M=&h=1139&w=750&sz=234&hl=en&start=4&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=qBpSPz2O2u8cRM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bboston%2Bgazette%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1

What I find most intersting about this page, is that it is completely composed of letters from citizens. Most of these letters list complaints of the British soldiers and ideas of overcoming the opression they were dealing with. While I agree that through publishing, these articles do spread news to the public, I do not agree in which the manner it is done. It is the job of a journalist to report the news, not to take the publics opinion and post it as news. I will state owever, that this form of news was able to reach the public more and create pationate feelings for the happenings in their country, which is a power that nearly every journalism of today lacks.

My point in this is not only to question the validity of the journalism throughout the American Revolution, but to prove that true or false, people will believe the news that they feel is trust worthy, and perhaps more importantly, react to it. Today's journalism has lost the trust of the people. Stories in today's news typically have little to do with the government or important movements throughout the nation. Today our news sells stories that seem bias, or empty of the entire truth. My professor asked us in class, if we could name the candidates in the upcoming election. I believe 2 hands raised. This may be caused from a lack of interest, but if our journalists were doing their jobs the way that they should, by the people and for the people, and if the news or government were trusted, then people would be more aware.

Journalism, Fanning the Flames

  It seems impossible to review the Revolutionary War and not mention Samuel Adams. He may be the sole reason for the war, and definitely a major contributor to what journalism is today. I always knew that Adams' printing press played a major role, but looking deeper into it I discovered he was the main reason for journalism through the entire colonies!

  Starting in September 0f 1768, Adams created the "Journal of Occurrences."  While it's well know Adams wrote about the discontent of the citizens and the taxes being forced on them, the uneasy feelings between the colonists and British troops stationed there still had a lot of stirring that Adams played with. This journal was mostly written by Adams, in what he said to be the "...for the general satisfaction, it being strictly fact" (Streitmatter, 10). The "Journal of Occurrences" would originally be published in Boston, and then sent out to other printing presses, in other states, to be published in their issue of next weeks paper. The stories typically focused on British soldiers, assaulting, raping, and stealing from the colonists (Streitmatter, 11). This helped Adam's ideas spread like wildfire, being how influential it was for a colonist who felt oppressed to be given an excuse to fuel any hatred towards the crown.

  My only problem with this journal of Adams' is how valid his stories may have or may not have been. According to Streitmatter, Adams did not list the names of the soldiers or citizens involved in the acts he wrote about (11). While undoubtedly some troops tried to take advantage of their power over the colonists, without any solid proof, it is possible that Adams created some of those stories with the intent to arouse the colonists. Also without the use of names, unjustly every British soldier was grouped into the assumption that they are "bloody-backed rascals!" (Streitmatter, 12).

I'm very interested in going deeper into this topic and questioning Adams some more!

Introduction

I chose to begin my project on "Mightier Than the Sword" by Streitmatter, on the first chapter, "Sowing the Seeds of Revolution. The reason I chose The Revolutionary War was not only because it is the foundation of our countries history, but it is the start of journalism taking a part in shaping a country and its government. This idea is so amazing, because almost 300 years ago it was forbidden, yet today journalism is a part of almost every country in the world.