Introduction
In most parts of history, especially modern, people have always relied on the news for important updates about their daily lives: prices of commodities, time and places of important events: political or phenomenal, health issues, and even about their lifestyles. This information became necessities that served as a guide for the way people conducted their daily business and activities. For when there is an impending storm, the weather bureau may have provided the data, but it was the media that disseminates the information that goes to the people. While political leaders served as the main sources of important information, it goes the same route in order to timely arrive at the concerned constituents.
The news comes from various forms of media: print, radio and television, and most recently, the internet’s streaming media. It is undeniable that several incidents or periods in American history had journalism play a major role but it has been argued whether the role was as substantial as Streitmatter (1998) claims it was. In presenting history, it is also necessary that all areas of American history including economics, military history, women in history, law, political history and philosophy, religion, social history, intellectual history, and cultural history be presented, as chronological and as complete as possible.
Discussion
Streitmatter (1998) used at least fourteen events in the United States history from Sam Adams of the 1776 Revolution, the Abolition or America’s Conscience Against the Sins of Slavery, Momentum for Women’s Rights, Attacking Municipal Corruption or The Tweed Ring, The Spanish-American War, The Golden Age of Reform Journalism, the Ku Klux Klan, Fomenting Anti-Semitism thru Coughlin, “Rosie the Riveter” and the propelling of the American Woman into the Workforce, Joe McCarthy in Television’s Finest Hour, the Civil Rights Movement and the National Agenda, Vietnam War: Bringing the Battlefield into the American Living Room, the Watergate scandal to Rush Limbaugh and the Republican Revolution. He has maintained all throughout the book that forces of powerful words, of “determined men who possessed both the talent and the intellectual insight to craft graceful and passionate prose that demanded freedom…” played a pivotal role in the indicated events, all historic, and significant.
Nevertheless, it should be carefully noted that Streitmatter (1998) acknowledged the presence of other qualities of his highlighted characters such as Sam Adams, as “a backstairs politician who understood […] the need to arouse public opinion as a step toward gaining grassroots support for the revolutionary ideas that he and his associates espoused…”. Thereby incorporating that news writing and journalism did not single-handedly layout changes and historical facts but equally relied on the character and attitudes of leaders who also happened to be writers.
The hype has always been associated with the American media, as O’Reilly (2003) placed, “…many in the American media hype stories all over the place in order to attract readers and viewers,” so that it is typical to read opinionated writings using the exact phrase “American media hype.” There has been a problem with separating facts from hyped fiction pretending to be news and hardnosed, academic or intellectual political opinion.
Notoro-Morgan (1999) insisted that the power and influence of the press have ranged from awesome to minimal as polls put the public’s trust in newspapers behind pharmacists, physicians, and ministers, neck to neck with politicians and behind television news anchors. But news researchers counter that these ratings are not a reason to panic as statistics show 85 percent of the population read newspapers at least once a week and about 65 percent read on a daily basis.
Nevertheless, Hume (1999), observed the less obvious and un-apparent thoughts that trouble more serious journalists, from reporters, editors to writers. She noted that the public openly expresses fear at the perceived power of the news media to corrupt American society. But in reality, many editors and reporters who are burdened with the stresses of daily journalism while competing with a myriad of new information or entertainment outlets, are wary if they have any influence at all on the public, or even a few individuals. While many of those who are in the trade go for the financial return of journalistic investment seeking popularity and commercialism most of the time, a few still seek to get individuals to believe, if only to be read.
In Streitmatter’s book, Hume (1999) pointed out that the author mined the events starting from Sam Adams’ call for American independence through the era of the Muckrakers to the talk-radio inspired Republican revolution in the 1990s highlighting commonalities on how the news media worked then used these to “remind journalists of a lesson from their often colorful past. Courage begets change. In many episodes, journalists faced intense criticism, threats, and financial crises. In each case they weren’t afraid to take positions of leadership.” In fact, Hume (1999) compared the book to a “greatest hits”, a collection in journalism history with an easy-going style, questionably, that “allows editors to ponder press power without getting bogged down in the minutia of more in-depth studies” summing up that the book serves as a “nice addition to the historian’s collection, covering print, audio, and visual journalism.”
Hume (1999) was equally impressed as Streitmatter did a remarkable job placing the episodes in context and highlighting the complex arguments about press influence. She found the author compelling when he examined the crusade against the Klan by the New York World, The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Tennessee, and the Montgomery Advertiser as he showed how the best of journalistic intentions could backfire and how dubious motives sometimes bring about heroic results.
But to base historical perspectives on news reports could be faulty as most often, as Notoro-Morgan (1999) pointed out, “newspapers have been in an almost perpetual state of war with the reading public over the issues of sensationalism, truthfulness, believability, and bias…” Bias has been such a heavy, hanging question mark for every publication and every newspaper or even news outlet editors as this has been openly discussed among media members (NPR, 2006; Starkey, 2006). As Starkey offered, difficulties and “balance” in the media are inherent in both achieving and measuring it. From the publisher down to the field reporter, each member is answerable, to his reader, to his financer, to his government. Newton (1989) clearly acknowledged that limitations to media neutrality include the inability of journalists to report all available stories and facts with the requirement that selected facts to be linked into a coherent narrative. Likewise, government influence induces overt and covert censorship, while market forces result in a biased presentation considering the stand of the ownership of the news source, the selection of staff, the preferences of an intended audience, or pressure from advertisers. In addition, political affiliations influence the ideological positions of media owners and journalists while space or air time available for news and opinions, as well as deadlines to be met, leads to incomplete and biased stories.
As Notoro-Morgan (1999) suggested, the difference between professional standards and reader preferences points to a number of problems for editors that balance what sells against what can be considered as most credible in a given time. She added that most often, the public that criticizes the performance of a media group as sensational is also the same as that which has made some publications the most profitable magazines on the newsstand. But her tone recedes back and forth as she claimed that “To move forward with a self-analysis on why the industry’s trust ratings are so low in the eyes of the public, today’s editors should stop yearning to recapture a trust they presume existed in the past. History fails to document, with the exception of Watergate, that we ever had their trust.”
Streitmatter (1998) had claimed that “Indeed, many of the nation’s leading newspapers, news magazines, and television networks not only did not follow the story themselves but accused the Post of overplaying the story,” with regards to the Watergate scandal when media ratings were very low. After being vindicated, polls found that the public felt a new respect for reporters, and schools of journalism began bursting at the seams as the days that followed saw Nixon’s resignation, and public opinion polls showed that 68 percent had trust and confidence in the news media (Notoro-Morgan, 1999).
Conclusion
It is quite difficult to ascertain the exact historical influence of the media on America and the United States in general. There are definitely positive outcomes of a free press in forging a more desirable society, but the same has helped corrupt and dilute values that are either traditional or modern.
Streitmatter definitely has chosen well the events that have been heavily catapulted by the use of information dissemination, journalism, press, or media. The connection could not be easily cut, as clearly, there were established aims, media used, and goals achieved. Nevertheless, it was also pointed out that at some point, there are political as well as social changes that need to be effected as journalism and news reporting are considered or used in Streitmatter’s book. Objectivity or bias was set aside as news reporting and journalism were used as a means to a justified end.
Suffice it to say that American history had been actually influenced by news reporting and journalism, but it is definitely inaccurate to claim that it shaped or that it played the major role in most of what Streitmatter had listed down, or the US history has had. Using other historical books, there is much to learn about American history beyond journalistic efforts. As mentioned elsewhere, in writing history, all areas of American history including economics, military history, women in history, law, political history and philosophy, religion, social history, intellectual history, and cultural history be presented, as chronological and as complete as possible. Streitmatter has chosen to present only areas where he believes journalism and news reporting have had influence and impact. This, however, is a prerogative of Streitmatter as a journalism historian that must not merit comparative criticism against other historical, or even similar books.
References
- Hume, Janice. (1999). “Episodes illustrate power of the press.” American Society of Newspaper Editors.
- National Public Radio (NPR). (2006). “Blaance vs. Bias in Journalism.” Talk of the Nation. Web.
- Newton, K. (1989). “Media bias.” In Goodin, R Reeve, A. (eds). Liberal Neutrality. Routledge.
- Notoro-Morgan, Arlene. (1999). “Credibility: A trust that was rarely there.” American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE).
- O’Reilly, Bill. (2003). “When the truth is a casualty.” Jewish World Review, Web.
- Starkey, Guy. (2006). Balance and Bias in Journalism: Representation, Regulation and Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Streitmnatter, Rodger (1998). Mightier Than the Sword: How the News Media Have Shaped American History. Westview Press