The development of the press, in general, can be interpreted as a shortened version of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution – struggle for existence. With the history counting more than three hundred years, the press evolved both form-vise and content-vise to withstand the challenges of competition. It was especially dire in the case of minorities’ news outlets since their target audience and overall support was much smaller. However, not only the competition was responsible for the press’ accelerated evolution. According to Park’s article “The national history of the newspaper,” the main ways of the media improvement lie in consideration of people’s education level and the highlighted topics. This argument will be put to the test in the historical context of the press’ development and on the narrower example of one of the minorities’ news outlets – the African-American Press (AAP).
There are three primary stages in the press history: the news-letters, a journal of opinion, and an independent press. The news-letters represent the very first newspapers. Originating from England of the 17th century, they had a form of printed letters that country gentlemen issued to cover the gossip of the court and the town. A journal of opinion newspaper changed its focus from gossip to a political theme. Political newspapers began to displace the news-letters at the beginning of the 18th century, following the reading public’s interest in the parliament’s debates. Under the influence of discussions they presented to the whole country, the newspapers became party organs. However, the creation of a propaganda apparatus invoked the resistance of the numerous independent agencies. They used the fact that an ordinary man is more interested in actual news than in ideological abstractions to supersede the old-fashioned political journals eventually. The independent press presented a wide variety of topics and represented all population groups, including the African-American people.
The first AAP paper in the U.S., Freedom’s Journal, was printed on March 16, 1827. Created by two free African-Americans, John B. Russwurm, and Samuel Cornish, it mostly covered the topics concerning the African-American population. Apart from the subject of slavery, the Freedom’s Journal highlighted the importance of education, fashion trends, etiquette as well as political, scientific, and foreign news. Despite its relatively short life span, two and a half years, it managed to set up a template for all the future African-American newspapers until the end of the Civil War in 1865. The Emancipation Proclamation resulted in a boom of African-American newspapers. Their content distanced from edgy topics that could lead to violence instead of providing the positive connotation of social responsibility, morality, and patriotism. Unfortunately, the situation was still not in the AAP’s favor. The high illiteracy rate amongst the freshly liberated people and general poorness meant the absence of any economic benefit for the African-American newspapers. Nonetheless, those who managed to survive in such a harsh environment were greatly valued.
The AAP’s genuine rise happened at the beginning of the 20th century. With new, better-educated generations of people, waves of further African-American emancipation, and appropriately chosen information, the AAP managed to show its potential. The Chicago Defender, the most influential African-American newspaper of that time, was responsible for the great migration campaign in the 1910th. The Pittsburgh Courier was read by almost a half of an african-american population of the U.S. in between the World Wars because of its undeniable objectivity. The Atlanta Daily World, the country’s only daily African-American newspaper, had one of its correspondents finally proclaimed as a White House reporter in 1944. From the technical perspective, another reason for the popularity of AAP’s giants was adopting new newspaper writing techniques, like Yellow Journalism and “muck-racking.” The former adds a hint of literature to the emotionless news by appealing to the fundamental passions of the target audience. The latter comes in sensational publications, exposing corruption or any other wrongdoings. Overall, the AAP achieved tremendous recognition and appreciation across the country.
However, despite the great success in the first half of the century, AAP substantially declined in the second half and never recovered to its former glory. The reason behind it can be called ironical – the APP finally managed to integrate into society, to which it used to be contra posed. The victory of emancipation and equity had its cost – with the loss of its unique features, the very reason to read African-American newspapers seemingly disappeared. The APP still endures nowadays, as well as the everlasting memory of its feats and achievements.
The newspaper improves through its readers and its techniques – such is the argument of the “The national history of the newspaper” article. On the example of the AAP, it is possible to see the newspapers’ influence growth thanks to the readers’ increasing literacy in the second half of the 19th century. It is also plain that the African-American newspapers could withstand the competition and thrive by incorporating new writing techniques and highlighting suitable topics. Analogically, their decline was caused by the writing techniques’ universal accessibility on the one hand and by the eventual irrelevance of chosen issues on the other. After all, the press world is indeed a world of struggle, with its own rules and a unique history.