Critically assess the role of the print journalist.

Critically assess the role of the print journalist.

The ability to disperse news through the arrival of the printing press is arguably one of the greatest influences on journalism. News was now able to be mass produced. This ability gave print journalists the power to inform or exploit much larger numbers of the public, as they chose.
In the 18th century there was already movement toward a press freer from government constraints. In 19th century America journalists began to function “as the public’s ministers – bring issues before it, interpreting its wishes and promulgating its edicts” (Stephens, 2007, p.181). Newspaper’s circulation in America was extremely high compared to other nations.
The average circulation of daily papers in the early 19th century was around 1200; multiply this by the 65 dailies the country had gives a rough circulation of some 78,000 dailies at the time. (Schudsen, 1978, p. 13). While some newspapers were still arguably mainly political, there was an increasing movement toward commercially driven news providers. This would have to be one of the factors affecting the change in the way journalists operated.
The arrival of the ‘penny papers’ marked a step away from the more traditional ones. Traditionally papers had relied upon subscriptions from readers, and some were subsidised by political parties. With the arrival of the penny papers the shift was to raising revenue from a larger circulation, as these papers were hawked daily by boys in the street, and to the use of advertising.
The industry was on its way to becoming a market based industry. Newspapers began to utilise advertising as an economic provider. In the New Zealand Advertiser of 1840, the ads range from haberdashery, to building, to renting houses.
Benjamin Day’s the ‘Sun’, the forerunning penny paper, featured a style more interested in the daily occurrences of life. Aided by the introduction of the speedier printing presses, large number of these cheaper papers could be printed for circulation...