History of Newspapers by Gabriel Staples

00027261 — 2025-10-05 19:19:26 UTC

The Colonial News era lasted from the start of the American colonies to the early 1800s. News was mostly spread through small, hand-written newspapers. The main audience was political leaders as the content largely revolved around political opinions and government notices. A downside to this era was the fact it was heavily censored and shut down if it was criticizing the government. They overcame these challenges by shifting topics from politics to advertisement. With the establishment of the First Amendment, censorship became less of an issue. This era of news was important in the spread of revolutionary ideas that eventually led up to the American Revolution in 1775, which led into the Penny Press Era in the 1830s.

Image Source: https://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1775m.html

00027261 — 2025-10-05 19:24:38 UTC

This era of newspapers started in 1833 with The Sun, which discussed crime news, revolutionizing the genre in news by utilizing real help from a police officer in their writings. This era of news received its name through the usage of cheap papers sold for one cent, hence the name "Penny Press". The main audience of this era was the general public. This era of news focused more on human related stories rather than politics in order to reach a wider audience. Supported by advertising rather than political parties. This era birthed the profession of reporters due to the subsequent birth of modern mass media. This era was the effect of overcoming challenges that were caused by the Colonial News era such as high production costs and limited audience. The cheap papers used in this era were the solution to this.

Image Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/penny-press-definition-1773293

00027261 — 2025-10-05 19:27:59 UTC

This era of newspapers, taking place around the 1890s with the start of the Spanish-American War in 1898, focused more on exaggeration in order to lure in readers. They would purposefully emphasize crimes and scandals in order to cause a reaction in readers. Common characteristics of newspapers at the time included exaggerated headlines and graphic illustrations. It wasn't uncommon for news outlets to manipulate or fabricate news in order to increase profit and political influence. Contributed heavily to the pressure to start war, especially with Spain. There was intense competition in the market during this time which was the main cause of all the exaggerated stories being spread around. They overcame this competition by utilizing the aforementioned exaggerated headlines in order to lure in possible customers of other newspapers.

Image Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/yellow-journalism-role-spanish-american-war

00027261 — 2025-10-05 19:28:18 UTC

This era of newspaper, starting around the 1900s, was focused on objectivity and investigative journalism, especially in large stories such as Watergate. They widened their lenses to include global events, politics, science, culture, essentially all parts of living in a community. This era is characterized by its usage of radio and television in order to spread news quicker and to more listeners. The rise of news stations such as CNN defined online journalism at the time. Misinformation was made significantly easier in this era due to easy access to the tools required to create news stations that look believable. Fact checking and sourcing is the most effective way to keep misinformation tamed but this is the hardest era to keep reliable purely because of the ease of access.

Image Source: https://www.mastersincommunications.org/modern-journalism/