The Evolution of Journalism in America.

Several professions, some more tasteful than others, have been dubbed with the title "The World's Oldest Profession". Among all in contention the winner must be found in communication. Each time an infant wails its way out of the womb it confirms the human drive to communicate. Tribal dance, cave paintings, scribes, and the town cryer are all predecessors to the modern journalist. We, as humans, have always had an obsession for the communication of knowledge, especially news events. Increasing levels of technology and education have changed the world of news reporting drastically in just over a century of time. Journalism has changed from the systematic notation of events, mainly for historical purposes, to a circus of current event thrillers downloaded live via satellite in vivid color to millions of boob tubes simultaneously. This essay will look at how the roles of journalism have changed and how they have changed the American public during the past century.

Newspapers and magazines were the reigning kings of the journalism industry in America up until Guglielmo Marconi's patented radio gained popularity the mid 1920's. Journals were for the most part, reserved for the rich and well educat

Radio started the American population's addiction to the immediacy of information. However, when it first started, many news flashes were done by news desk broadcasters that were only reading the news as it came off the wire. Also, the news wire services, controlled by the print media, were leery about radio and placed a limit on how much news information they were allowed to buy. Radio news didn't really take off until the first world war broke out and even then it kept an even pace with newspapers for a long time. Until increased technology developed, allowing on location radio broadcasts, the newspapers had an edge over radio. They had more news and they had pictures, something radio could never have.

If photos and radio brought world events closer to home the rise of television landed the globe right in the American living room. Foreign lands were no longer mysterious hard to pronounce words on a sheet of paper, or outlines on a map. The topography and people of foreign lands came right into the American home in the form of pictures for the first time ever. The immediate satisfaction generation was born.

The American Magazine. Janello, Amy. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991.

Photo journalism started out as staged photos of important people because it took so long to expose the film that anything moving would not show up on the film at all. However, the last decade of the 19th Century brought with it better methods and America's first "photojournalists". "Photojournalism, is the industrial-strength version of photography, is an untidy collision of art, reportage and commercial publishing." (Eyewitness 7)