The Year That Defined American Journalism : 1897 and the Clash of Paradigms

The Year that Defined American Journalism explores the succession of remarkable and decisive moments in American journalism during 1897--a year of significant transition that helped redefine the profession and shape its modern contours. This defining year featured a momentous clash of paradigms pitting the activism of William Randolph Hearst's participatory "journalism of action" against the detached, fact-based antithesis of activist journalism, as represented by Adolph Ochs of the New York Times, and an eccentric experiment in literary journalism pursued by Lincoln Steffens at the New York Commercial-Advertiser. Resolution of the three-sided clash of paradigms would take years and result ultimately in the ascendancy of the Times' counter-activist model, which remains the defining standard for mainstream American journalism. The Year That Defined American Journalism introduces the year-study methodology to mass communications research and enriches our understanding of a pivotal moment in media history. W. Joseph Campbell is an Associate Professor at American University's School of Communcation. He is the author of three other books, including Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies. The Year that Defined American Journalism explores the succession of remarkable and decisive moments in American journalism during 1897 a year of significant transition that helped redefine the profession and shape its modern contours. This defining year featured a momentous clash of paradigms pitting the activism of William Randolph Hearst's participatory 'journalism of action' against the detached, fact-based antithesis of activist journalism, as represented by Adolph Ochs of the New York Times , and an eccentric experiment in literary journalism pursued by Lincoln Steffens at the New York Commercial-Advertiser . Resolution of the three-sided clash of paradigms would take years and result ultimately in the ascendancy of the Times' counter-activist model, which remains the defining standard for mainstream American journalism. The Year That Defined American Journalism introduces the year-study methodology to mass communications research and enriches our understanding of a pivotal moment in media history. The Year That Defined American Journalism examines the 1897 conflict between the activist "yellow journalism" of William Randolph Hearst and its objective antithesis represented by the New York Times. No other year, arguably, has produced more memorable, singularly important, or defining moments in American journalism. This exceptional year brought the establishment of the White House Press Corps; the introduction of half-tone photographs to newspaper printing; the publication of American journalism's most famous editorial, "Is There A Santa Claus?"; and the inauguration of newspaper history's longest-running comic strip, the "Katzenjammer Kids." Moreover, the outcome of this conflict reshaped the profession and gave American journalism its modern contours. This work enriches not only our understanding of this decisive moment in journalism history, but also our understanding of how to do media history Front cover......Page 1 CONTENTS......Page 8 ABOUT THE AUTHOR......Page 10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 12 AN 1897 TIMELINE: Pivotal Moments of a Decisive Year......Page 14 PREFACE......Page 20 INTRODUCTION......Page 24 CHAPTER 1. 1897 American at an Hour of Transition......Page 54 CHAPTER 2. THE CLASH OF PARADIGMS......Page 92 CHAPTER 3. EXCEPTIONAL JOURNALISM IN JOURNALISM'S EXCEPTIONAL YEAR......Page 142 CHAPTER 4. NOT A HOAX: New Evidence in the New York Journal's Rescue of Evangelina Cisneros......Page 184 CONCLUSION: How 1897 Lives on......Page 218 NOTES......Page 224 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 314 INDEX......Page 326 Back cover......Page 342 Explores the succession of remarkable and decisive moments in American journalism during 1897 - a year of significant transition that helped redefine the profession and shape its modern contours. This work introduces the year-study methodology to mass communications research and provides an understanding of a pivotal moment in media history