Ο Ιγνάσιο Ραμονέ στο βιβλίο «Η τυραννία των ΜΜΕ» είναι σαφής: «Στα τηλεοπτικά δελτία οι νόμοι της σκηνοθεσίας δημιουργούν την ψευδαίσθηση του “απευθείας” και άρα της αλήθειας. Αρκεί να συμβεί κάτι, και ξέρουμε πώς θα μας το παρουσιάσει η τηλεόραση, με ποιους κανόνες, με ποια κινηματογραφικά κριτήρια».
Όπως το έθεσε ο Ουμπέρτο
Έκο στο κείμενο «Η ψευδαίσθηση της αλήθειας», αλλά για το σχεδόν σχιζοφρενικό
σύμπτωμα ενός κοινού, που από τη μια αναγνωρίζει ότι τα ΜΜΕ εξυπηρετούν
πολιτικές σκοπιμότητες κι ότι εντάσσονται σ’ αυτό που ονομάζεται διαπλοκή και από
την άλλη εξακολουθεί να τα παρακολουθεί με τρόπο παθητικό διαμορφώνοντας άποψη
και υιοθετώντας πολιτικές αντιλήψεις.
Η Naomi Klein στο βιβλίο «Το δόγμα του Σοκ» υποστηρίζει ότι οι νεοφιλελεύθερες επιταγές πραγματοποιούνται με μεγαλύτερη ευκολία σε κοινωνίες που έχουν υποστεί ομαδικό σοκ από κάποιο απρόσμενο γεγονός και είναι αδύναμες να αντιδράσουν στις αντιδημοκρατικές – αρπακτικές μεταρρυθμίσεις που θα επέλθουν. Μια φυσική καταστροφή, μια δικτατορία, ένα τρομοκρατικό χτύπημα αποτελούν τις ιδανικές προϋποθέσεις για την κοινωνική αδράνεια που θα επιτρέψει την αποδοχή της νέας τάξης μέσα στο γενικό μούδιασμα.
ACTA DIURNA, Η ΠΡΩΤΗ ΕΦΗΜΕΡΙΔΑ
Acta Diurna was the first “newspaper”.
Ολλανδικά corantos
Newspapers are the descendants of the Dutch corantos and the German pamphlets of the 1600s.
JOHN MILTON'S AREOPAGITICA
John Milton’s 1644 Areopagitica, which criticized the British Parliament’s role in regulating texts and helped pave the way for the freedom of the press.
“Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye (Milton, 1644).”
Einkommende Zeitungen 1650
[In 1650, a German publisher began printing the world’s oldest surviving daily paper, Einkommende Zeitung]
English publisher followed suit in 1702 with London’s Daily Courant.
Ο ΑΠΟΙΚΙΣΜΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΜΕΡΙΚΗΣ
Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick was the first multi-page newspaper published in the Americas
The
first article printed in his new colonial paper stated, “The
Christianized Indians in some parts of Plimouth, have newly appointed a
day of thanksgiving to God for his Mercy (Harris, 1690).” The other
articles in Public Occurrences, however, were in line with Harris’s previously more controversial style, and the publication folded after just one issue.
Fourteen years passed before the next American newspaper, The Boston News-Letter, launched. Fifteen years after that, The Boston Gazette began publication, followed immediately by the American Weekly Mercury
in Philadelphia. Trying to avoid following in Harris’s footsteps, these
early papers carefully eschewed political discussion to avoid offending
colonial authorities. After a lengthy absence, politics reentered
American papers in 1721, when James Franklin published a criticism of
smallpox inoculations in the New England Courant.
The following year, the paper accused the colonial government of
failing to protect its citizens from pirates, which landed Franklin in
jail.
After
Franklin offended authorities once again for mocking religion, a court
dictated that he was forbidden “to print or publish The New England Courant,
or any other Pamphlet or Paper of the like Nature, except it be first
Supervised by the Secretary of this Province (Massachusetts Historical
Society).” Immediately following this order, Franklin turned over the
paper to his younger brother, Benjamin. Benjamin Franklin, who went on
to become a famous statesman and who played a major role in the American
Revolution, also had a substantial impact on the printing industry as
publisher of The Pennsylvania Gazette and the conceiver of subscription libraries.
Boston was not the only city in which a newspaper discussed politics. In 1733, John Peter Zenger founded The New York Weekly Journal.
Zenger’s paper soon began criticizing the newly appointed colonial
governor, William Cosby, who had replaced members of the New York
Supreme Court when he could not control them. In late 1734, Cosby had
Zenger arrested, claiming that his paper contained “divers scandalous,
virulent, false and seditious reflections (Archiving Early America).”
Eight months later, prominent Philadelphia lawyer Andrew Hamilton
defended Zenger in an important trial.
Hamilton compelled the jury to consider the truth and whether or not
what was printed was a fact. Ignoring the wishes of the judge, who
disapproved of Zenger and his actions, the jury returned a not guilty
verdict to the courtroom after only a short deliberation. Zenger’s trial
resulted in two significant movements in the march toward freedom of
the press. First, the trial demonstrated to the papers that they could
potentially print honest criticism of the government without fear of
retribution. Second, the British became afraid that an American jury
would never convict an American journalist.
Freedom of the Press in the Early United States
In
1791, the nascent United States of America adopted the First Amendment
as part of the Bill of Rights. This act states that “Congress shall make
no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceable to assemble, and to petition the
government for a redress of grievances (Cornell University Law School).”
In this one sentence, U.S. law formally guaranteed freedom of press.
However,
as a reaction to harsh partisan writing, in 1798, Congress passed the
Sedition Act, which declared that “writing, printing, uttering, or
publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings
against the government of the United States” was punishable by fine and
imprisonment (Constitution Society, 1798). When Thomas Jefferson was
elected president in 1800, he allowed the Sedition Act to lapse,
claiming that he was lending himself to “a great experiment…to
demonstrate the falsehood of the pretext that freedom of the press is
incompatible with orderly government (University of Virginia).” This
free-press experiment has continued to modern times.
Benjamin Day’s Sun, the first penny paper. The emergence of the penny press helped turn newspapers into a truly mass medium. 1833
Another early successful penny paper was James Gordon Bennett’s New York Morning Herald,
which was first published in 1835. Bennett made his mark on the
publishing industry by offering nonpartisan political reporting. He also
introduced more aggressive methods for gathering news, hiring both
interviewers and foreign correspondents. His paper was the first to send
a reporter to a crime scene to witness an investigation. In the 1860s,
Bennett hired 63 war reporters to cover the U.S. Civil War. Although the
Herald initially emphasized sensational news, it later became one of the country’s most respected papers for its accurate reporting.
Another
major historical technological breakthrough for newspapers came when
Samuel Morse invented the telegraph. Newspapers turned to emerging
telegraph companies to receive up-to-date news briefs from cities across
the globe.
[...]
This
collaboration between papers allowed for more reliable reporting, and
the increased breadth of subject matter lent subscribing newspapers mass
appeal for not only upper- but also middle- and working-class readers.
In the late 1800s, New York World publisher Joseph Pulitzer developed a new journalistic style that relied on an intensified use of sensationalism—stories
focused on crime, violence, emotion, and sex. Although he made major
strides in the newspaper industry by creating an expanded section
focusing on women and by pioneering the use of advertisements as news,
Pulitzer relied largely on violence and sex in his headlines to sell
more copies. Ironically, journalism’s most prestigious award is named
for him.
This sensationalist style served as the forerunner for today’s tabloids.
Cover of the New York World, Christmas 1899, featuring a story by Mark Twain
At the same time Pulitzer was establishing the New York World, William Randolph Hearst—an admirer and principal competitor of Pulitzer—took over the New York Journal. Hearst’s life partially inspired the 1941 classic film Citizen Kane. The battle between these two major New York newspapers escalated as Pulitzer and Hearst attempted to outsell one another.
The
cartoon “provoked a wave of ‘gentle hysteria,’ and was soon appearing
on buttons, cracker tins, cigarette packs, and ladies’ fans—and even as a
character in a Broadway play (Yaszek, 1994).” Another effect of the
cartoon’s popularity was the creation of the term yellow journalism to describe the types of papers in which it appeared.
