THE FUNCTION OF THE NEWSPAPER
=The Newspaper Worker and His Work.= Any discussion of newspaper
writing and editing would be incomplete if it did not consider the
function of the newspaper and the relation of the newspaper worker to
that function. In this presentation of methods of newspaper making
the object has been to explain and to exemplify current practices in
journalism rather than to discuss the ultimate purpose and results of
such methods. It is evident, however, that unless the reporter and the
editor, consciously or unconsciously, set up for themselves ideals
based on their conception of the function of the newspaper, they have
no standards by which to measure the character of their work. Merely
to accept existing methods without analyzing them to determine their
results, is to overlook their underlying purpose. Not until a reporter
or an editor realizes the effect that his news story or his headline
produces upon the opinions, and hence upon the lives, of the thousands
of persons who read it, does he appreciate the full significance of
his work. Ideals and standards for any kind of work appeal much more
strongly to the average worker when he knows the ultimate effect of
what he is doing.
=The Newspaper and the Community.= Like all other undertakings, public
and private, newspaper making tends to conform to the current ideals
and tastes of the community. As far as it is a private business
enterprise, it is influenced by the conditions and the practices
prevailing in the business world. As a medium of information and
publicity, it is measured by the standards of the community in which it
circulates. It is a product of its environment, and at the same time it
is a force in creating that environment.
Conditions in newspaper making to-day are the outgrowth of the
journalism of preceding generations. The changes that have produced
these conditions are to a considerable extent the results of social,
political, and economic forces. A brief survey of the development of
newspaper editing and publishing, with special reference to present
problems in journalism, will help to a better understanding of the
function of the newspaper of to-day.
=Growth of the Business Element.= In the last seventy-five years
in this country, the editing and the managing of newspapers have
undergone a significant development. From being a comparatively simple
undertaking, newspaper publishing has become a big, complex, highly
organized enterprise. In 1835 it was possible for one man, James Gordon
Bennett, Sr., to start the New York _Herald_ with a cash capital of
$500, and to perform the greater part of the work connected with its
publication, for the owner-editor’s duties ranged from editorial
writing to keeping books, from gathering police news to making out
bills, and from commenting on conditions in Wall Street to writing
advertisements. The first instance of ownership of a newspaper by an
incorporated stock company came ten years later when Horace Greeley
and Thomas M’Elrath, editor and business manager respectively of the
New York _Tribune_, decided to share their personal ownership of that
paper with five assistant editors and with the five employees of the
business and mechanical departments who had been connected with the
_Tribune_ for the longest time. This joint ownership plan Greeley
and his assistants hoped would in time result in the “still further
application of the general principle that the workman should be his
own employer and director, and should receive the full reward of
his labor.” The amount raised by this stock company, $100,000, was
considered at that time a very large sum to be devoted to newspaper
publishing. How rapidly the conditions of newspaper making changed
is shown by the fact that less than thirty years after the New York
_Tribune_ was incorporated with its shares at $100 each, these shares
sold for as much as $10,000 each, and in 1869, less than thirty-five
years after the New York _Herald_ began with $500 cash capital, Bennett
refused an offer of $2,000,000 for his paper. Within the lifetime of
these two great editor-publishers newspaper making had become a big
business enterprise.
=Newspapers Require Large Capital.= During the last quarter of a
century the amount of capital required for success in newspaper
publishing has been further increased by the need for huge presses,
expensive linotypes and other type-casting machines, and more elaborate
stereotyping apparatus, as well as for better news service, new special
features, and more numerous illustrations. Expensive additions to the
mechanical equipment and other exigencies often make it necessary for
the newspaper company, like other business enterprises, to secure
financial assistance by borrowing considerable sums from banks.
Such has become the magnitude of the business side of the newspaper
that ownership by stock companies is the rule to-day instead of the
exception as it was in 1845. Not infrequently the majority of the stock
of a newspaper is held by one man or in one family, and one person,
often known as the publisher-owner, directs the publishing. In large
cities the amount of capital required to establish and maintain a
daily newspaper is so great that the publisher-owner must be a man of
considerable wealth. Stock in newspaper companies, however, is not
held exclusively by those directly connected with the paper. From the
point of view of the stockholders of a newspaper company, who are not
directly connected with the newspaper and who are interested in it
largely if not entirely as an investment, the important consideration
is that the newspaper shall be profitable, that dividends shall be
adequate and regular. In short, newspaper publishing has become a
large business undertaking subject to the conditions of big business
enterprises.
=Increase in Advertising.= Another important factor in newspaper
publication, that has developed in the last twenty-five years almost
step by step with the increased cost, has been the remarkable growth
of newspaper advertising. With growing combination and competition in
business, managers of great retail stores discovered that daily news
of their establishments, in the form of description of new goods,
bargains, and special prices and sales, was read by many with as much
interest as were other kinds of news. Newspaper advertising of this
kind has proved very profitable both to the advertiser and to the paper.
Half-page, full-page, and even two-page advertisements of department
stores and other retail business concerns have necessitated an increase
in the size of regular editions of daily papers from eight pages
to twelve, sixteen, or twenty-four pages. The number of classified
advertisements, such as “want ads,” has also increased greatly within
recent years. The large revenues from all forms of advertising have
made it possible to give the reader a better paper as well as a bigger
one, and at the same time to reduce the price generally from three or
five cents to one or two cents a copy. The reduction in price, in turn,
has resulted in remarkable gains in circulation. Whereas a generation
ago 50,000 copies daily was considered a very large circulation,
we now have newspapers printing daily editions of from 150,000 to
900,000 copies. Thus, although the cost of producing the newspaper has
constantly increased, the price to the reader has been reduced.
The result of these readjustments has been that from two thirds to
three quarters of the cost of maintaining a newspaper comes from the
advertising, and only from one quarter to one third from subscriptions
and sales. This means that when a man buys a penny paper, he is buying
for one cent what it costs three or four cents to produce, and that the
difference between the cost and the price he pays is paid for by the
advertisers.
=Decline of Personal Journalism.= Coincident with the change in the
financial organization of newspapers, significant changes have taken
place in the editing of them. Two generations ago the owner-editor who
established a newspaper with a limited amount of capital, as Greeley
did the _Tribune_, was the real head of his paper, who expressed
vigorously his own opinions in its editorial columns. Personal
journalism, as the expression of the political, social, and economic
beliefs of great editors, like Greeley, Bennett, Bowles, Raymond, Dana,
and Godkin, was an important influence in American life. These men
were recognized as leaders. The opinions set forth in their editorials
were accepted by readers as significant contributions to the solution
of current problems. In short, it was a period of great editorial
leadership.
With the development of the telegraph, the telephone, and the railroad
mail service, and with the expansion of the nation and its interests,
the amount of news available for publication increased many fold.
Distance, once a formidable obstacle to newsgathering, practically
ceased to exist when news could be flashed in a few minutes from
one end of the world to the other. The news field was enlarged from
the city and its suburbs to include the whole earth. The newspaper
became truly a paper of news, a budget of facts rather than a medium
for expressing the editor’s opinions. As a purveyor of the news, it
increased in circulation and prosperity. With an ample supply of facts
upon which to base their opinions, the readers no longer needed to
accept opinions ready-made from the editor. With greater independence
in thinking and in voting on the part of the reading public the
editorial leadership of the newspapers declined. At present the three
or four columns of editorials are relatively unimportant as compared
with the ten or twelve pages of news. To-day the names of the editors
are unknown to the majority of the readers. Company ownership has
contributed toward minimizing the opportunities of personal editorship,
until now it is said that personal journalism, in the old sense of the
term, has all but ceased to exist in this country.
=Wars Develop Newspapers.= In the gathering of news and in the
effective presenting of it, the two most important influences have
been the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. The great demand from
readers of all classes for the latest reports from the front during
the War of the Rebellion was a great stimulus to newspaper editors
and publishers. The beginning of the present summary “lead,” and of
the long bulletin form of headline for news stories, is to be found
in connection with the telegraph dispatches of war news. The advent
of “yellow journalism,” especially in New York City, coincided with
the breaking-out of the Spanish-American War. Big headlines, and news
displayed in larger type, served to advertise the latest reports,
which the public eagerly sought. The climax of large headlines is
found in two metropolitan newspapers which announced the declaration
of hostilities with the single word “WAR,” spread over the whole of
the front page. Banner heads in red and black, and large headlines two
and three columns in width, that are now not uncommon in newspapers
as a means of advertising the news, had their beginning in the
Spanish-American War days.
=The Growth of Cities.= The growth in the population of cities, partly
as a result of the movement from the country to the city, and partly
as a result of immigration, has made possible large increases in
newspaper circulation. New papers have not been established generally
to meet this growth in population; existing papers, rather, have
added to the number of their readers. The result has been that a few
large papers are to be found in all the big cities of the country
rather than an ever-increasing number of small ones. In great centres
of population, like New York and Chicago, the influx of foreign
immigrants has also been a factor in the development of so-called
“yellow journalism.” With a limited knowledge of the English language
and of American institutions, this foreign element has been attracted
by large, striking headlines, sensational news stories, diagrammatic
illustrations, and well-displayed editorials, and has become a
considerable part of the total number of readers of the “yellow
journals.”
=The Development of Features.= Hand in hand with the remarkable growth
of advertising in newspapers has gone the development of important
features in the editing of them. The success of department store
advertisements, for example, depends to a considerable extent on the
number of women readers. To secure and retain these readers, newspapers
have, accordingly, developed a number of features primarily intended
for women. Fashion news, cooking and household recipes, discussions
of etiquette, articles on health and beauty, advice in affairs of the
heart, society news, reports of women’s clubs, and similar subjects
have been given greater space from year to year because of the
constantly growing importance of women readers as a factor in the
business success of the newspaper.
The increase in the amount of advertising has made possible also the
expansion, in size and scope, of the Sunday paper. Special articles,
fiction, humor, and illustrations in black and colors, fill special
supplements, magazine sections, and “comics.” In fact, aside from the
news sections, the reading matter in Sunday newspapers has become
practically identical in character with that of the popular weekly and
monthly magazines.
Reading matter the primary purpose of which is entertainment rather
than information has always had a place in daily papers. Despite the
great increase in the amount of news available, this kind of material
has not been crowded out. The daily short story, a chapter of a serial
novel, feature articles, humor in verse and prose, and similar forms
of entertaining reading matter are a recognized part of every issue of
many newspapers in all parts of the country.
The perfecting of photo-engraving processes, by which half-tone
illustrations and zinc etchings can be made rapidly at relatively small
cost, has added another important feature to the newspaper. Photographs
of persons, places, and events that appear in the day’s news are now
quickly reproduced by the newspaper half-tone. Cartoons printed by
means of zinc etchings occupy a prominent place in many papers.
=Aims of the Newspaper.= The present-day newspaper, as a result of this
evolution, undertakes to accomplish five ends: (1) to furnish news,
(2) to interpret the news and to discuss current issues, (3) to give
useful information and practical advice, (4) to supply entertaining
reading matter, and (5) to serve as an advertising medium. The
primary purpose of the newspaper is undoubtedly to furnish news and
editorial discussions; the secondary one to supply useful information
and entertaining reading matter. These results, however, can be
accomplished with the present small cost to the reader only by reason
of the fact that the newspaper is a valuable purveyor of advertising
publicity.
The interrelation between the advertising matter and the other contents
of the newspaper is a vital one. The value of newspaper advertisements
is determined by the number and the character of the persons who
read the “ads,” that is, by the circulation of the newspaper. The
circulation, in turn, depends on the amount and the character of the
news and other features of the newspaper. Increases in circulation
make possible higher advertising rates, and higher rates produce
larger revenues from advertisements. The greater income received from
advertising and circulation is generally used to increase and improve
the reading matter. Decreases in advertising revenues usually mean
retrenchment in expenses and a reduction of reading matter. If this
reduction in news and other features of the newspaper is marked, the
paper will lose readers. Advertising, circulation, and the character of
the contents of a newspaper are thus closely bound up with one another.
=Recognition of Its Public Function.= That in its primary purpose,
of furnishing the news of the day with an interpretation of it and a
discussion of current issues, the newspaper is a public institution,
has been recognized from earliest times both in this country and
abroad. Although the American newspaper has at all times been a
private enterprise, its public function has always been emphasized.
In guaranteeing the freedom of the press, the framers of the first
amendments to the Constitution realized that it is necessary in
a democracy to have full information and free discussion on all
questions, social, economic, and political. They believed as did Milton
when he wrote, in his great defense of liberty of the press addressed
to the English Parliament at the very dawn of English journalism,
“Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity must be much
arguing, much writing, many opinions, for opinion in good men is but
knowledge in the making.”
The responsibility of the press to the public has been repeatedly
emphasized. In condemning the appointment of editors to public office
as a means of securing their support, Daniel Webster, in 1832,
declared: “In popular governments, a free press is the most important
of all agents and instruments. The conductors of the press, in popular
governments, occupy a place in the social and political system of
highest consequence. They wear the character of public instructors.”
That the newspapers are the teachers of the people has been reiterated
on the platform, in the pulpit, and in the newspapers themselves.
Wendell Phillips, a generation ago, in speaking of the importance of
newspapers in this country, said: “It is a momentous, yes, a fearful
truth, that millions have no literature, no schools, almost no pulpit
but the press. It is parent, school, college, pulpit, theatre, example,
counselor, all in one. Let me make the newspapers, and I care not who
makes the religion or the laws.”
=The Function of Newspapers in a Democracy.= To accept this generally
recognized function of the newspaper as the distributor of information
on all the varied subjects presented in the day’s news, is to give the
newspaper a place of great responsibility in a democracy like ours. If
we consider only its news-distributing function and disregard editorial
influence, the place of the newspaper is still a vital one in our
country, for the success of a democratic form of government depends
upon intelligent action by the individual voter. Such voting must be
based upon accurate information concerning all important events of
the day,—events of a social, commercial, and industrial significance,
as well as those of political import,—because many of the important
questions upon which the voter should cast an intelligent ballot
concern economic and social problems rather than purely political
ones. Practically the only source of information for the average voter
concerning local, national, and international events, is the newspaper.
The rapidly increasing tendency of citizens in voting to disregard
party affiliations, and the recent extension of methods of direct
making of laws by means of the initiative and the referendum, require
that citizens have accurate information on a great variety of subjects
to enable them to vote intelligently on men and issues. Any influence
that tends to affect the accuracy of statements concerning current
events thereby tends to affect the basis underlying the opinions of
the voters. Upon the accuracy of the newspapers in matters of news,
therefore, depends to a great extent the character of our government.
=Limitations to Accuracy and Completeness.= Absolute accuracy in
gathering and presenting the news is subject to human limitations.
Seldom do two eye-witnesses from whom the reporter gets information
agree in their accounts of what happened. The reporter must judge
of the value of the testimony of each witness, and must make up a
composite account of the truth as he sees it in these different
narratives. The copy-reader, in editing the reporter’s story,
frequently finds it necessary to cut it down considerably because of
the importance of other news. Again the accuracy of the report may be
affected by reason of this “boiling down.” The headline writer, working
under strict limitations of space, may modify the impression produced
upon the reader by the original story. Even on the mechanical side
the accuracy of the news may be affected by a careless compositor or
proof-reader. The rapidity with which all the processes of newspaper
making are performed greatly increases the possibility of error. The
personal equation, for which allowance is made in all scientific and
technical work, enters into every part of the process of newspaper
making, from the gathering and writing of the news by the reporter,
through the editing of it and the writing of a headline for it, to the
compositor, proof-reader, and make-up man. The chances of printing
inaccurate statements under such conditions may be reduced to a minimum
only by the exercise of the greatest possible care on the part of all
those concerned in the rapid production of newspapers, but mistakes of
this type can never be entirely eliminated.
Failure to give a complete report of the day’s news is due in part to
the amount of news available. Inasmuch as the average newspaper in a
large city receives from two to three times as much news daily as it
can publish, it is necessary for editors to select from the available
news, and to decide quickly which news is the most important for
their readers. The fact that this news comes in by mail, telephone,
and telegraph, as well as from reporters, at intervals throughout the
day and the night, makes it impossible for the editors to judge with
absolute accuracy of the relative value of each piece of news as it is
received. Consequently news values are constantly being readjusted as
each important piece of news reaches the office. In the final decision
in regard to what news shall be printed, what shall be omitted, and how
much space shall be given to each piece of news that is published, the
personal judgment of the editors is the determining factor.
Besides inaccuracy and incompleteness in presenting the news of the
day due to the personal judgment of those responsible for the making
of the newspaper, other forms of suppression or distortion of news are
to be found in newspaper publishing due to the influence of various
forces. It is to these influences that peculiar significance attaches
from the point of view of the ethics of newspaper publishing, because
in such cases the incomplete and inaccurate presentation of the news is
deliberate.
=Some Sinister Influences.= The forces that make for the suppression
and the “coloring” of news as well as for the restriction of
editorial independence, critics of newspapers assert, are the result
of the changes in business and editorial management during the last
seventy-five years. The charge is made that too many newspapers are
“edited from the counting-room.” Business interests, it is said,
particularly those of advertisers, influence news and editorials.
Because of stock company ownership and the absence of editorial
management by men known to the public, as were the editors in the days
of personal journalism, wealthy men or corporations, it is charged,
have been able quietly to buy up the stock of some newspapers and
through hired editors, of whom in these days the public knows nothing,
to direct secretly the news and editorial policies for personal
advantage. Some banks, these critics declare, have refused loans
to newspapers the policies of which were inimical to the interests
largely represented among the stockholders or the customers of the
banks; and when loans have been made to newspapers by other banks, such
indebtedness has sometimes been used to prevent the newspapers from
maintaining or adopting policies hostile to their interests. So-called
“yellow journalism,” critics of newspapers point out, furnishes another
example of the commercializing of the press, because, in order to
increase their circulation and profits, the publishers of “yellow”
journals pander to their readers’ cravings for the sensational. A
number of newspapers have published advertisements of fraudulent and
questionable enterprises because of the additional revenues to be
obtained from this source. Whether these charges are true of a number
of newspapers or of only a few, the existence of these conditions
and the possibility of these dangers make the subject one of vital
importance not only to newspaper men but to every citizen of the
country.
=Suppression of News.= If, for example, owners of retail stores
request newspapers in which they advertise to suppress all news of
elevator accidents in their stores because such news hurts their
business, the newspaper publishers might consent to this suppression
on the ground that it is more important to retain the good will and
patronage of these advertisers than to give their readers the news
of the accidents. The very existence of the paper, they may argue,
depends upon these advertisers, and, after all, newspapers give their
readers the accounts of so many other accidents that those concerning
elevators in department stores will never be missed. This seems to
be a logical argument for omitting news of this kind, but when the
results of such suppression are traced, the action, it is realized,
is unjustifiable. In the first place, elevator accidents are often due
to carelessness and haste on the part of passengers, and newspaper
accounts of them accordingly serve to warn many people to be more
careful. Thus the publication of the news helps to prevent accidents.
Again, the accidents may be due in part to the employment of young,
inexperienced, or careless operators. When it is proposed to correct
these difficulties by a local ordinance or by a state law providing
that elevator operators must be over eighteen years of age and must be
licensed as competent, the importance of passing such a regulation is
more evident to the average voter if he knows of the frequency of such
accidents. The suppression of news of these accidents would deprive
most citizens of knowledge upon which to base an opinion as to the need
of laws governing elevator operators.
The business interests of some cities, it is said, have urged
newspapers to suppress the news of epidemics or threatened epidemics
of such diseases as typhoid fever, smallpox, and even bubonic plague,
because reports of the presence of these diseases in a city keep away
travelers and hurt business. At first glance this plea might seem a
just one, and records show that it has been successful in a number of
instances. But the question inevitably arises, Has not the tourist,
the buyer, and every one else who is planning to go to that particular
city a right to know of the health conditions that prevail there, in
order to decide whether he wishes to expose himself to the possibility
of sickness and death? Again, Has not every citizen and voter of
the city a right to know of these conditions, not only that he may
protect himself and his family, but that he with other citizens and
voters may remedy the conditions responsible for the epidemic and may
provide for stamping it out? Reformers in some cities have declared
that local newspapers have refused to give publicity to campaigns
against graft and vice because the exposure of such conditions, the
publishers said, would reflect on the reputation of the city and would
hurt business. Others have said that newspapers have reported and
upheld investigations of municipal corruption as long as those affected
by such exposure were persons of little influence or importance in
the community, and that as soon as more important business interests
were threatened by the investigations, the attitude of the newspapers
changed completely. The question to consider is, Should the business
interests of the city be paramount to the welfare of all the people?
The vital questions for editors to decide must be, Are newspapers in
such cases doing their duty as distributors of complete and accurate
reports of the news of the day? Are they not morally responsible when
they fail to perform this duty?
=“Coloring” the News.= The so-called “coloring” or “shading” of news
is in the same category as the suppression of news. It is possible
to change the facts more or less completely so that a story not only
is incomplete but produces a false impression on the mind of the
reader. The sin is then no longer one of omission; it becomes one of
commission. To belittle the campaign of the opposing political party,
newspapers have misrepresented the size of the political meetings,
the enthusiasm of the audiences, the arguments of the speakers, and
in general, the success of the efforts to win votes. Candidates,
likewise, have been assailed and misrepresented in news stories. In
economic disturbances, such as strikes and lockouts, some newspapers
have given their readers colored reports by “playing up” the disorder
of the strikers, their threats of violence, and their unreasonableness
in refusing terms of settlement. Other newspapers, representing the
labor interests, have printed “shaded” reports to show that employers
have treated their men unjustly, that the militia has been brutal, and
officers of the law unfair to strikers.
Newspaper editors and publishers, in these and other instances, often
maintain that they only print what their readers want. The questions
involved, therefore, are, Do readers want unbiased news reports of the
events of the day, or do they prefer to have them “colored” or “shaded”
to favor the side in which they as a class are interested? Does the
business man who takes a conservative, well-edited newspaper want news
stories written to suit his point of view? Does the workingman who
buys the Socialist daily or the labor union daily really want his news
“shaded” to favor the cause of labor? In the case of a strike in which
business or manufacturing interests are involved, do not both employers
and employees want the actual facts as an unprejudiced reporter sees
them? If readers do want “colored” news in such cases, are editors
justified in departing from the truth in order to satisfy them?
Some men of wealth and some big business corporations have undoubtedly
bought existing newspapers or have established new ones, secretly
or openly, with the evident intention of using news and editorial
columns to advance their own interests. Ambition to secure political
office or power has obviously been the purpose of some of these men.
Creation of public opinion favorable to their business interests has
undoubtedly been the aim of other men and of corporations. Suppression
of unfavorable news, and the “coloring” of other news to make it more
favorable, as well as editorial argument and comment, are the means
used to accomplish these ends. In one notorious example in a large
city in the Middle West, reporters and editors were furnished with a
list of certain business enterprises that were not to be mentioned
in any unfavorable connection in the news, because the owner of the
paper was financially interested in these enterprises. Although men
and corporations have a right to present their side of any case
through the medium of the newspapers, and although there may be no
valid objection to the ownership or control of newspapers by men with
political ambitions or by corporations, it is plain that such ownership
and control are fraught with danger to public welfare by reason of the
public opinion thus created.
=Making News “Yellow.”= “Yellow journalism,” it is conceded, has been
developed largely by furnishing the readers with sensational phases
of the day’s events. In order to make the everyday news seem more
startling, large headlines with bold-face type printed in black, green,
and red have blazoned forth the striking facts of the news. Sensational
news stories of all kinds have constantly been “played up” prominently.
When the facts were not particularly unusual or striking, they have
been “colored” to seem so. This “sensationalizing” of the news has been
the result of an effort to attract large numbers of readers and by
enlarging circulation to increase profits. The effect on the readers
of this giving over of a large part of the news columns to sensational
news, and this “coloring” of news to make it more sensational, is, of
course, to give them a distorted idea of current events. To what extent
this distorted view of life affects the relation of these readers to
society is the question to be determined in analyzing the effects of
“yellow journalism.”
=Three Causes.= The three principal reasons for suppressing or coloring
news, as we have seen, therefore, are: (1) the desire of the owners of
the newspaper to use it to advance their own private interests or those
of their party or faction; (2) the influence of advertisers and other
business interests that wish to protect their own enterprises; (3) the
effort to make the news more attractive and sensational than it really
is in order to gain readers.
=Effects of Adulterated News.= Whatever may be the reason for the
“coloring” or the suppression of news, the effect of this distortion
or suppression upon the opinions and the votes of citizens is a matter
of sufficient importance to the people generally to warrant careful
consideration, not only by citizens but by newspaper men themselves.
If the social and political interests of the community are vitally
affected by news furnished in the newspapers, as has been shown in
the examples given, publishers cannot claim that the purpose of the
newspapers is to sell as many copies as possible, to get as much
advertising as possible, and to give the people what they want to read,
rather than to furnish their readers with a record of the interesting
and significant activities of the day, as complete and accurate as it
can be made. Like common carriers, such as railroads, the newspapers
have a public function as well as the private one of making money, and
that public function is to furnish news, the commodity in which they
deal, in a complete and accurate form.
News adulterated and “colored” is as harmful to the opinions of
newspaper readers as impure and poisonous food is to their physical
constitutions. Before pure food legislation prohibited adulterating,
coloring, and misbranding of foods, the buyer was at the mercy of the
unscrupulous manufacturer, just as the newspaper reader is at the
mercy of the unscrupulous newspaper maker. Although public sentiment
has demanded laws to prevent impure food, it has not yet insisted
that its food for thought be furnished unadulterated. A generation
ago government regulation of railroad rates, foodstuffs, and the size
of business combinations would have been regarded as unjustifiable
interference with personal liberty. To-day any government interference
with newspapers is considered as an attack on the freedom of the press.
Is it not possible that the next generation may see every newspaper of
this country compelled by public opinion, if not by legislation, to
give complete, unbiased reports of all events of general interest?
=Questionable Advertisements.= As an advertising medium, the newspaper
also has an obligation to the community. By giving widespread publicity
in their advertising columns to fraudulent investment schemes,
dangerous patent nostrums, disreputable medical practitioners, and
other objectionable matter, some newspapers, doubtless unintentionally,
have aided in grossly deceiving and seriously injuring the reading
public that they claimed to serve. For such practices the excuse has
been offered that the business of the newspaper is to sell advertising
space to any one who will buy it, and that it is not the business of
advertising managers and publishers to investigate the truthfulness or
moral character of the advertisements that they publish. Realization by
newspapers of the fact that by printing objectionable advertising they
may cause great harm to their readers has led many of them to reject
entirely all forms of questionable advertisement even though to do so
has, in some instances, cut off annually from $50,000 to $200,000 of
possible revenue.
=Honesty in Journalism.= The discussion of these various undesirable
tendencies in newspaper making, and the presentation of these
criticisms of some newspapers, do not imply that all newspaper editors
and publishers have subordinated public welfare to private gain, or
that all have permitted sinister external influences to affect their
news and editorial policies. Neither is it to be assumed that these
questionable methods are necessary for business success in newspaper
publishing. There are many notable examples of honest, independent
newspapers that have enjoyed marked financial success. In fact, a
careful survey of the whole country would doubtless show that few
newspapers that have continued to juggle with the truth in news and
editorials have been permanently successful in making money or in
keeping the confidence of their readers. Lincoln’s words are as true of
newspapers as of politicians, “You can fool all the people some of the
time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all
of the people all of the time.”
The stronger a newspaper grows because of the size and the character of
its circulation, and because of the money value of the good will thus
acquired, the more independent it becomes of the external influences
that may seek to modify its news and editorial policy. Unless such
papers are maintained to represent special business or political
interests, well-established papers with adequate capital behind them
are not likely to be affected by the demands of advertisers or other
outside forces. Strong, independent newspapers can publish the facts in
the news and can print editorial comments without fear or favor.
Unfortunately the rapidly increasing cost of newspaper production
has reduced the margin of profit of a large number of newspapers to
a point where the loss of any considerable amount of advertising or
other support means financial failure. Under such circumstances,
publishers have yielded to pressure from various interests and have
made concessions which doubtless they would not have done if they had
been in positions of greater financial independence. A few editors and
publishers have simply regarded newspaper making as an enterprise in no
wise different from business and politics, and have accepted the less
commendable standards that have resulted from competition in business
and rivalry in politics. Whatever the explanation that is offered for
deliberate failure to give newspaper readers the truth, it must not be
regarded as condoning the offense, however great or slight.
=The Reporter and His Problems.= The student of journalism should
know the conditions as they exist, so that he may face the problems
squarely and choose deliberately the course that he desires to pursue.
Too often reporters, editors, or publishers have not weighed fully the
ultimate effects produced by suppressing or coloring the news. It is
only by full consideration of the public function of the newspaper as
a factor in the social and political life of the community that the
true significance of dealing lightly with the truth as a crime against
society is revealed in unmistakable colors.
Although the news policy of the newspaper is determined by those above
him in authority, the reporter must decide his own attitude toward
that policy. If he finds that he cannot conscientiously accept the
ideas and ideals of his superiors because these do not conform to his
own standards of truth and honesty, he must look for a position on a
paper that does conform to those standards. A man cannot retain his
self-respect if he undertakes to do work that he believes to be false
or dishonest.
On any newspaper, however, the reporter finds himself confronted with
various problems that involve the public function of the newspaper.
He may be requested by an acquaintance, or by some person with whom
his work brings him into contact, to suppress, as a whole or in part,
a piece of news that it falls to his lot to report. Men and women
threatened with exposure or disgrace because of one wrong step, will
plead with him to spare them and their families by suppressing the
news of their downfall. In all such cases the reporter will do well to
refer the request to his superiors and to avoid promising to suppress
any news. Older and more experienced newspaper men in positions
of authority on the paper are usually better able to judge of the
desirability of yielding to requests and pleas of this kind than is the
young reporter.
=How “Faking” Does Harm.= In collecting and presenting facts the
reporter should make every reasonable effort to have them as complete
and accurate as possible. He is not justified in defending his failure
to get and present the truth and the whole truth on the ground that as
long as a story is interesting it makes little difference whether or
not it is entirely true. The first temptation to depart from the truth
not infrequently comes in an apparently innocent form. In the absence
of real news, or in an effort to show his cleverness, the reporter
takes some trivial incident and, by amplifying it with humorous but
imaginary details, makes of it an amusing little feature story. Such
stories often seem quite harmless in their effects on the readers or on
the persons mentioned in the stories. Instances are on record, however,
of persons who have committed suicide because their acquaintances
bantered them about the ridiculous situations in which they had been
portrayed in such newspaper stories. The reporter must remember that
the persons who play a part in his stories are human beings with
feelings, and that to hold them up before thousands of readers in a
ridiculous situation may cause them much suffering. But besides any
effect it may have on particular individuals, this embroidering of the
truth with fictitious fancies, even when it does not deceive the reader
in the least, tends to form in the reporter the habit of embellishing
all his stories with imaginary details. Thus it becomes the first step
in so-called “faking.”
Newspaper “faking” often appeals to the young reporter as clever and
commendable, particularly when he hears older newspaper men tell
stories of successful “fakes.” The “cub” may even hear his humorous
little feature story praised for its cleverness by his superiors who
know that it is largely imaginary. If he does not stop to consider,
he may consciously or unconsciously decide that fiction makes better
news than truth, and may proceed to write his stories accordingly.
Encouraged by some other newspaper man’s account of a similar exploit,
he “fakes” an interview when he fails to get one that has been assigned
to him. His “fake” interview may deceive the city editor, and when
printed may not be repudiated by the man falsely quoted. Although
apparently a success from the reporter’s point of view, the “fake”
story injures him more than he realizes, for it dulls his moral sense,
makes less keen his appreciation of the difference between truth
and falsehood. If his superiors discover the deception, they lose
confidence in his reliability and may discharge him at once. If his
identity is known to the victim of the “fake,” the reporter loses that
man’s respect and often makes him an enemy, from whom he cannot hope
to secure news in the future. In fact, “faking” is another term for
“lying” and the reporter guilty of it deserves to be called by the
“short and ugly word.”
Furthermore, every “fake,” whether it deceives few or many, lowers
both the newspaper that publishes it and newspapers generally in the
estimation of all who know that it is false. Stories recognized by the
reader as untrue, either as a whole or in part, shake his confidence
in the truth of all newspaper reports and lead him to discount all the
news that he reads. Thus the value of the press as a source of reliable
information is seriously impaired. From whatever point of view “faking”
is regarded, therefore, it is indefensible. It hurts the guilty
writer; it hurts the victim of “the fake”; it hurts the newspaper that
publishes it; it hurts journalism generally.
=The Dangers of Inaccuracy.= Inaccuracy due to carelessness or failure
to verify facts is less reprehensible because it is not deliberate,
but it is nevertheless a form of misrepresentation that in its results
may be as bad as “faking.” An error made by a reporter in the initials
or spelling of the name of a person charged with some crime has often
injured an innocent man or woman whose name happened to be the same
as the incorrect form of the real criminal’s name. In one instance, a
firm spent hundreds of dollars in sending out letters contradicting an
erroneous newspaper report of its failure, the error having been due
to the reporter’s carelessness in confusing the solvent firm with an
insolvent one engaged in the same business and having the same name
except for different initials. In such cases the newspaper is put in
an embarrassing position by its careless reporter, and is compelled to
make a public retraction of his mistake. Even if he is not discharged,
he is not likely thereafter to be entrusted with important assignments,
and everything that he does will be carefully scrutinized until he has
established a reputation for accuracy.
If reporters and correspondents remember that every story they write
not only affects themselves, their newspapers, and the persons they
write about, but also contributes toward forming the readers’ opinions,
they will consider carefully whether or not they can afford to permit
haste and carelessness to impair the completeness and accuracy of their
work. Although they are at the foot of the journalistic ladder when
they begin their work, reporters and correspondents should realize that
upon the character of their work in gathering and writing the news
depend, to some extent, at least, the opinions of the citizens and
voters who read their paper.
=How Editors Determine the News Policy.= The editors of the news,
by determining what shall be printed and how it shall be printed,
naturally have greater responsibility for the general character of the
newspaper than have the reporters. The editor’s failure to verify facts
in the work of reporters and correspondents means that any errors in
such work receive his approval and he thereby becomes responsible for
them. The results of faithful, accurate reporting, on the other hand,
may be entirely destroyed by the editor’s efforts to make the news
more striking and sensational. By their instructions to reporters,
correspondents, and copy-readers, editors directly determine the
character of the newspaper. When an editor tells a reporter, a rewrite
man, or a copy-reader to play up a certain “feature” in a news story,
he determines to a considerable extent what the effect of that piece
of news will be upon the readers. By cutting out important details, by
shifting the emphasis from one particular to another, by inserting a
word here and there, editors and copy-readers may completely alter the
impression made by the news. The size and character of the headline
given a story produce quite as great an impression on the reader as the
story itself. Headlines, as has already been pointed out, have played
no small part in so-called “yellow journalism.” All that has been
said of the importance of giving readers complete and accurate news
reports, and of the evils growing out of suppressing or distorting the
news, applies quite as much to editors and copy-readers as it does to
reporters and correspondents.
=The Newspaper Worker’s Problem.= A vital question for every one
engaged in newspaper writing or editing is whether or not he will obey
the orders of his superiors when these orders do not square with his
own standards of truth and right. The reporter must decide the question
when the city editor gives him his instructions; the city editor must
decide when the managing editor directs him in his work; the managing
editor must decide when the owners announce to him their policy for
the paper. Then it is that every newspaper worker is brought face to
face with the problems of present-day newspaper making. Then it is that
these problems cease to be general questions for discussion and become
a personal matter that each newspaper worker must decide for himself.
When it becomes a personal question to him, its solution does not
always seem so easy as when it is a general problem, because to disobey
the orders of his superiors usually means to lose his position.
This question, however, is not peculiar to the newspaper profession.
The problem is not unlike that which confronts men engaged in every
kind of business or professional work. Every business man, every
lawyer, every physician finds himself called upon again and again to
settle for himself the same ethical question. Competition in business
not infrequently leads to questionable practices for getting the better
of business rivals, employees, or customers; and it is repeatedly
necessary for men in positions of all grades to determine whether
or not they will carry out their employers’ policies when these do
not agree with their own standards of right and wrong. Lawyers and
physicians in their struggle to build up a practice are tempted to
resort to methods condemned as unethical by the standards of their
profession, or in the offices of established practitioners they find
practices in use which do not harmonize with their own ethical ideals.
In the older professions of law and medicine the members have directly
or indirectly regulated the conditions of admission to practice,
and have established codes of professional ethics. Such regulation,
reinforced by government legislation, has tended to maintain better
professional and ethical standards than would be possible without it.
Journalism, among the last of the callings to be generally recognized
as a profession, has established neither standards of admission nor a
formulated code of ethics. Only recently has the need of professional
college courses in preparation for journalism been recognized by the
public and by newspapers themselves. With the quickening of the public
conscience in regard to political and social conditions has come a
keener appreciation of the importance of the newspaper as the greatest
single source of information in our democracy, and a realization of
the dangers of abuse of this power by editors and publishers. Whatever
opinions may be held as to present-day standards in journalism, every
one will grant that it is the duty of those who enjoy the advantages
of university training in preparation for this profession to maintain
the highest ideals in their own work. Opportunity to know the truth
carries with it responsibility for making the truth prevail. _Noblesse
oblige_ is as true of the privilege of knowledge as it ever was of the
privilege of rank.
SUGGESTIONS
1. Remember that whatever you write is read by thousands.
2. Don’t forget that your story or headline helps to influence public
opinion.
3. Realize that every mistake you make hurts someone.
4. Don’t embroider facts with fancy; “truth is stranger than fiction.”
5. Don’t try to make cleverness a substitute for truth.
6. Remember that faking is lying.
7. Refer all requests to “keep it out of the paper” to those higher in
authority.
8. Stand firmly for what your conscience tells you is right.
9. Sacrifice your position, if need be, rather than your principles.
10. See the bright side of life; don’t be pessimistic or cynical.
11. Seek to know the truth and endeavor to make the truth prevail.
FOOTNOTES
[1] “Telling the Tale of the ‘Titanic,’” by Alex. McD. Stoddart; _The
Independent_, May 2, 1912.
[2] _Collier’s Weekly_, March 18, 1911, p. 22.
[3] “What the City Editor does when a Gaynor is shot,” by Alex. McD
Stoddart; _The Independent_, August 25, 1910.
INDEX
Abbreviations in copy, 226.
Abbreviations in headlines, 288.
Accidents, news stories of, 101, 109.
Accuracy in news, limitations to, 341.
Accuracy in news, necessity for, 51, 341.
Ad alley, 328.
Addresses, reporting, 46.
Adds in copy, 61, 260.
Advance copy of speeches, etc., 47, 58.
Advance stories, release of, 48, 57.
Advertisements, position for, 8.
Advertisers, suppression of news by, 344.
Advertising, growth of, 334.
Advertising, influence of, on news, 343.
Advertising of news in headlines, 271.
Advertising, questionable, 350.
Advertising manager, 3.
Advertising space, how measured, 265.
Agate line measure for advertisements, 265.
Animal stories, 218.
Art department, 14.
Articles, beginning news stories with, 75.
Assignment book, or sheet, 33, 36.
Assignments, reporters’, 32, 36.
Associated Press, 56.
Associated Press, news bulletin of, 12.
Autoplate stereotyping machine, 9, 10.
Bank in composing room, 328.
Bankmen, 328.
Banks in headlines, 274.
Banner heads, 305.
Banquets, reporting, 174.
Baseball games, news stories of, 167.
Beat in publishing news, 31, 51.
Beat, or news run, 31.
Beginnings for news stories, 69, 103, 110, 128, 144.
Beginnings to be avoided, 74.
Body of news story, 88, 132.
Body type, 264.
Boiling down news, 205.
Bold-face type, 264.
Boston _Transcript_, story from, 184.
Boxed facts in news stories, 86.
Bulletins, news, 34, 57, 261.
Bulletins, news, double leaded, 265.
Bureaus, city news, 32.
Burglaries, news stories of, 110.
Business element in newspaper publishing, growth of, 332.
Business management of newspapers, 2.
Cable editor, 12.
Camera, reporter’s use of, 49.
Capital necessary in newspaper publishing, 333.
Cases, type, 264.
Cashier, 3.
Casting box, stereotyping, 9.
Catch-lines in copy, 259, 260.
Chase, 8.
Chicago _Tribune_, stories from, 82, 83, 214.
Children, news value of, 23.
Children in human interest stories, 213.
Christmas celebrations, 174, 181.
City editors, 5, 32.
City news bureaus, 32.
_Collier’s Weekly_, definitions of news in, 17.
Colored headlines, 273.
Colored news, 343.
Column rules, 8.
Column, width of, 265.
Comics, printing of, 11.
Composing room, 3.
Composing room terms, 328.
Composing stick, 265.
Compositors, 3.
Conventions, reporting, 136.
Copy, 5.
Copy, common errors in, 257.
Copy, essentials of good, 60.
Copy-cutter, 3, 7, 14.
Copy-desk, 5, 13, 258.
Copy-reader, how he works, 258.
Copy-reader, qualifications of, 255.
Copy-reading, 255.
Copy-reading, example of, 267.
Copy-reading, marks used in, 266.
Correspondent, duties of, 54.
Correspondent, instructions to, 57.
Courts as news sources, 30.
Courts, news stories of, 144.
Crime, news stories of, 110.
Crime stories, leads for, 112.
Criminal court news, 30.
Cross-line heads, 276.
Cuts, 5, 338.
Decisions, news stories of, 150.
Decks in headlines, 274.
Defalcations, news stories of, 110.
Department store advertising, 334.
Dispatches, filing of, 57.
Display type, 264.
Drop-line heads, 274, 275.
Editing copy, 255, 266.
Editor, city, 5, 32.
Editor, managing, 5.
Editor, telegraph, 5.
Editorial policy, 4.
Editorials, purpose of, 4.
Editorial writers, 4.
Editor-in-chief, 4.
Editors, news, 5.
Em as type measure, 265.
Embezzlements, news stories of, 110.
End mark in copy, 61, 260.
Engagements, announcements of, 170.
Ethics of journalism, 339, 357.
Exchange editor, 5.
Exchanges, news rewritten from, 206.
Extraordinary events, news value of, 19.
Faces of type, 264.
Fakes, effects of, 354.
Faking news, 353.
Feature articles, style in, 229.
Feature articles, subjects for, 225.
Feature stories, 211.
Features for crime stories, 110.
Features for fire stories, 103.
Features for rewrite stories, 196.
Features, playing up the, 67.
Figures at beginning of sentence, 75.
Figures in headlines, 290.
Filing news despatches, 57.
Filing queries and schedules, 54.
Fillers, 206.
Fire losses, boxed, 86.
Fires, stories of, 101, 106.
Flash, or news bulletin, 35, 261.
Flimsy, guide lines on, 261.
Following up the news, 43, 194.
Follows in copy, 260.
Follow up stories, 194, 201.
Fonts of type, 264.
Football games, stories of, 162.
Forms, page, 8, 329.
Free lance writers, 224.
Fudge printing device, 11.
Function of newspaper, 331.
Future books, editors’, 32.
Gaynor, Mayor, news of shooting of, 34.
Government publications, news stories from, 154.
Government publications, special articles from, 225.
Grammatical errors in copy, 257.
Graveyard, obituaries in, 183.
Guide-lines in copy, 259, 261.
Hanging indention in heads, 274, 277.
Headlines, abbreviations in, 288.
Headlines and yellow journalism, 272.
Headlines as advertisements of news, 271.
Headlines, figures in, 290.
Headlines, forms of, 274, 277.
Headlines, function of, 271.
Headlines, impartial and colored, 273.
Headlines, methods of building, 294.
Headlines, punctuation in, 292.
Headlines, style in, 287.
Headlines, tone of, 282.
Headlines, type limits of, 279.
Heads, banner, 305.
Heads, jump-, 304.
Heads, side-, 126.
Heads, sub-, 302.
Hearings, reporting, 145.
Hell-box, 329.
Holidays, stories of celebrations of, 174.
Home edition, 327.
Hotels as news source, 30.
Human interest, news value of, 22.
Human interest stories, 211, 212, 213.
Humorous feature stories, 213.
Illustrations, increase in, 338.
Inaccuracy in news, dangers of, 355.
_Independent_, articles from the, 12, 34.
Inserts in copy, 61, 260.
Instructions to correspondents, 57.
International News Service, 56.
Interviewing, 44.
Interviews by telephone, 48.
Interviews, form of, 139.
Interviews, groups of, 140.
Interviews in feature articles, 240, 243.
Investigations, news stories of, 145.
Items, news, 206.
Jump-heads, 304.
Justifying forms, 329.
Labor editor, 5.
Leaded type, 265.
Leads between lines of type, 265.
Leads, or beginnings, 66.
Leads, explanatory details in, 75.
Leads for crime stories, 110.
Leads for fire stories, 103.
Leads for rewrite stories, 196.
Leads for speeches, etc., 128.
Leads for trials, 144.
Leads, how to begin, 69.
Leads, leaded, 265.
Leads, unconventional, 75.
Lectures, reporting, 126.
Legal proceedings, reporting, 152.
Librarian, 5.
Linotype machine, 3, 10.
Linotype slugs, 10, 11, 329.
Lists of dead and injured, boxed, 88.
Local ends of news, 6, 25, 195.
Local news, value of, 24.
Locking page forms, 329.
Long-hand copy, 60.
Long-hand reporting, 46.
Lower case letters in type, 265.
Magazine articles, news stories from, 154.
Magazine articles, style in, 229.
Magazine articles, subjects for, 225.
Magazine section, editor of, 5.
Magazine section, printing of, 11.
Magazine section, stories for, 223.
Mail editions, 327.
Mailing machine for newspapers, 11.
Mailing newspapers, 9.
Make-up of newspapers, 8, 322.
Make-up, contrast in, 323.
Make-up, front page, 322, 325.
Make-up, importance of, 322.
Make-up, positions of prominence in, 324.
Make-up schedule, 327.
Make-up, symmetry in, 324.
Make-up, types of, 322.
Making-up different editions, 327.
Managing editor, 5.
Marine editor, 5.
Market edition, 327.
Market editor, 5.
Market reports, 26.
Mat, stereotyping, 9.
Matrix, stereotyping, 9.
Measurement of type, 263.
Meetings, reporting, 136.
Monotype machine, 3, 10.
Morgue, newspaper, 5, 6, 183.
Murders, news stories of, 110.
Names, accuracy in printing, 51.
News, accuracy and completeness of, 341.
News, adulterated, 349.
News associations, 56.
News, boiling down, 205.
News bureaus, city, 32.
News, coloring of, 346, 349.
News, covering big, 33.
News, defined by editors, 17.
News, definition of, 18.
News editor, 5.
News, effects of adulterated, 349.
News, essentials of, 18.
News, following up the, 43, 194.
News gathering, 29, 34, 36.
News, getting it into print, 6, 12.
News, grouping of, in make-up, 325.
News items, 206.
News, nose for, 50.
News policy, sinister influences on, 343.
News policy determined by editors, 356.
News runs, 31.
News sources, 30.
News staff, 5.
News, suppression of, 53, 343, 352.
News, timeliness in, 19.
News values, 18.
New York _Evening Post_, stories from, 181, 232, 238.
New York _Herald_, establishment of, 332.
New York _Sun_, stories from, 78, 80, 174, 187, 215, 218, 236,
240.
New York _Times_, story from, 244.
New York _Tribune_, establishment of, 332.
New York _Tribune_, stories from, 178, 216, 230.
Night city editor, 5.
Night editor, 5.
Night press rate, telegraph, 57.
Noon edition, 327.
Nose for news, 50.
Note book in reporting, 52.
Note taking, 46.
Obituaries, 183.
Organization of a newspaper, 2.
Ownership of newspapers, 333.
Ownership of newspapers, influence of, on policy, 343, 347.
Paragraph length in news stories, 64.
Paragraph marks in copy, 61, 266.
Pathetic feature stories, 222.
Pathetic feature stories, style in, 213.
Personality sketch, 228.
Personal journalism, decline of, 335.
Photographer, staff, 49.
Photographs for newspaper cuts, 49.
Pi, type, 9.
Pica as type measure, 265.
Pied type, 9.
Pittsburgh _Gazette-Times_, story from, 222.
Planer, 329.
Planing down forms, 329.
Plate, stereotyping, 9.
Platform, political, boxed, 87.
Point system of measuring type, 263.
Police headquarters as news source, 30.
Police news stories, 110.
Political subjects for feature stories, 228.
Politics, news value of, 22.
Position of advertisements, 8.
Practice work, 94, 116, 156, 191, 208, 249, 306.
Press associations, 56.
Presses, newspaper, 10.
Press, proof, 7.
Press room, 3.
Printing newspapers, process of, 9.
Printing presses, newspaper, 10.
Proof correcting, 315.
Proof, example of corrected, 319.
Proof, galley, 7, 315.
Proof, marks for correcting, 316.
Proof, revised, 8.
Proof-reading, 3, 315.
Proof-room, 315.
Punctuation, common errors in, 257.
Pyramid banks in headlines, 274, 276.
Queries, schedule of, 55.
Query, correspondent’s, 54.
Questions at beginning of lead, 82.
Quoins, 9, 329.
Quotation marks in copy, 60, 266.
Quotations in lead of news stories, 128.
Quotations, misleading, playing up, 128.
Quotations, verbatim in news stories, 126.
Railroad editor, 5.
Real estate editor, 5.
Receptions, stories of, 169.
Release date on advance stories, 48, 57.
Reporter, ethical problems of, 352, 357.
Reporter, how he gets news, 36.
Reporter, qualifications of, 50.
Reporter, suppression of news by, 53, 352.
Revises, proof, 8.
Rewrite man, 5, 194.
Rewrite stories, 194.
Robberies, news stories of, 110.
Rules, column, 8.
Running stories, 46.
Runs, reporters’, 31.
Schedule, make-up, 327.
Schedule of queries, 55.
Science, popularizing in special articles, 227.
Scoop in publishing news, 31, 51.
Second day stories, 43, 201.
Sentence length in news stories, 64.
Sermons, reporting, 126.
Ship news reporters, 30.
Short-hand reporting, 46.
Side heads on news items, 126.
Slang in headlines, 290.
Slang in sporting news, 169.
Slug, compositor’s, 328.
Slug, linotype, 10, 11.
Slugging a story, 259.
Society editor, 5, 169.
Society news, 169.
Special articles, 211, 223.
Special articles, style in, 229.
Special articles, subjects for, 225.
Special feature stories, 211, 223.
Speeches, boxed excerpts from, 87.
Speeches, news stories of, 126.
Speeches, reporting, 46, 126.
Speeches, reporting series of, 136.
Sporting editor, 5.
Sporting extra, 11, 327.
Sporting news stories, form of, 161.
Sporting news stories, style of, 169.
Sports, news value of, 22.
State exchanges, news rewritten from, 206.
Statistics at beginning of special articles, 229.
Stereotyped plates, 9, 10.
Stereotyping, 9, 10.
Stereotyping room, 3.
Stick, composing, 265.
Stickful as measure of copy, 265.
Stock company ownership of newspapers, 333.
Stock exchanges, news of, 31.
Stoddart, Alex. McD., articles by, 12, 34.
Stone, composing, 329.
Stories, human interest, 211.
Stories, news, body of, 88.
Stories, news, handling big, 12.
Stories, news, leads for, 66, 69, 75, 110, 128.
Stories, news, style in, 61.
Stories, special feature, 211, 223.
String, correspondent’s, 55.
Style book, newspaper, 258.
Style, newspaper, essentials of, 61.
Style in headlines, 287.
Style in human interest stories, 213.
Style in special articles, 229.
Style, typographical, 63.
Subheads, 302.
Suggestions, 16, 28, 58, 93, 115, 155, 192, 207, 248, 269, 305,
321,329, 359.
Suicides, news stories of, 110.
Summaries boxed in news stories, 86.
Sunday editor, 5.
Sunday magazine articles, 223.
Sunday newspapers, growth of, 338.
Suppression of news, 53, 343, 352.
Takes of copy, 7, 14, 328.
Technical subjects for special articles, 227.
Telegraph copy, guide lines on, 261.
Telegraph editor, 5.
Telegraph news, filing of, 57.
Telegraph news, form of, 12, 261.
Telephone, assignments by, 48.
Telephone directory, value of, 51.
Telephone, getting news by, 48.
Testimony, forms of, 147.
Timeliness in news, 19.
_Titanic_ disaster, news of, 12, 32.
Trials, news stories of, 144.
Trials, reporting, 47.
Type cases, 264.
Type cast on monotype, 10, 329.
Type, distributing, 329.
Type-high cuts, 266.
Type, leaded and solid, 265.
Type, measurement of, 263, 265.
Type, names of, 263, 264.
Type, off its feet, 329.
Type, set by hand, 265.
Type, sizes and kinds, 263.
Unexpected occurrences, news stories of, 101.
United Press, 56.
United Press, news stories from, 261.
Unusual, news value of the, 19.
Uplift run, 31.
Upper case letters in type, 265.
Utterances, news stories of, 126.
Want ad at beginning of news story, 85.
Weddings, stories of, 169.
Whitlock, Brand, article by, 245.
Witnesses, news stories of testimony by, 147.
Woman’s clubs, news of, 173.
Women as newspaper readers, 338.
Yellow journalism and big headlines, 272.
Yellow journalism, criticisms of, 344, 348.
Yellow journalism, advent of, in New York, 336.
Yellow journalism and foreign population in cities, 337.
Zoo, animal stories from, 23, 218.
ENGLISH FOR COLLEGE COURSES
EXPOSITORY WRITING
By MERVIN J. CURL.
Gives freshmen and sophomores something to write about, and helps
them in their writing.
SENTENCES AND THINKING
By NORMAN FOERSTER, University of North Carolina, and J. M. STEDMAN,
Jr., Emory University.
A practice book in sentence-making for college freshmen.
A HANDBOOK OF ORAL READING
By LEE EMERSON BASSETT, Leland Stanford Junior University.
Especial emphasis is placed on the relation of thought and speech,
technical vocal exercises being subordinated to a study of the
principles underlying the expression of ideas. Illustrative selections
of both poetry and prose are freely employed.
ARGUMENTATION AND DEBATING (_Revised Edition_)
By WILLIAM T. FOSTER, Reed College.
The point of view throughout is that of the student rather than that
of the teacher.
THE RHETORICAL PRINCIPLES OF NARRATION
By CARROLL LEWIS MAXCY, Williams College.
A clear and thorough analysis of the three elements of narrative
writing, viz.: setting, character, and plot.
REPRESENTATIVE NARRATIVES
Edited by CARROLL LEWIS MAXCY.
This compilation contains twenty-two complete selections of various
types of narrative composition.
THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF WRITING ENGLISH
By GERHARD R. LOMER, Ph.D., and MARGARET ASHMUN.
A textbook for use in college Freshman courses.
HOW TO WRITE SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLES
By WILLARD G. BLEYER, University of Wisconsin.
A textbook for classes in Journalism and in advanced English
Composition.
NEWSPAPER WRITING AND EDITING
By WILLARD G. BLEYER.
This fully meets the requirements of courses in Journalism as given
in our colleges and universities, and at the same time appeals to
practical newspaper men.
TYPES OF NEWS WRITING
By WILLARD G. BLEYER.
Over two hundred typical stories taken from representative American
newspapers are here presented in a form convenient for college classes
in Journalism.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
RIVERSIDE ESSAYS
Edited by ADA L. F. SNELL
_Associate Professor of English, Mount Holyoke College_
The purpose of the Riverside Essays is to present to students of
English composition essays by modern authors which deal in a fresh way
with such subjects as politics, science, literature, and nature. The
close study of vigorous and artistic writing is generally acknowledged
to be the best method of gaining a mastery of the technique of
composition.
In the Riverside Essays the material consists of essays which, with
few exceptions, have been printed entire. Other advantages of the
Riverside Essays for both instructor and student lie in the fact that
the material is presented in separate volumes, each of which is devoted
to a single author and contains two or more representative essays.
Finally, the series has none of the earmarks of the ordinary textbook
which the student passes on, marked and battered, to the next college
generation. The books are attractively printed, and bound in the
Library Binding of the Riverside Literature Series. The student will
therefore be glad to keep these books for his own library.
PROMOTING GOOD CITIZENSHIP
By JAMES BRYCE. With an Introduction. _Riverside Literature Series_,
No. 227, Library Binding.
STUDIES IN NATURE AND LITERATURE
By JOHN BURROUGHS. _Riverside Literature Series_, No. 226, Library
Binding.
UNIVERSITY SUBJECTS
By JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. _Riverside Literature Series_, No. 225, Library
Binding.
THE AMERICAN MIND AND AMERICAN IDEALISM
By BLISS PERRY. With an Introduction. _Riverside Literature Series_,
No. 224, Library Binding.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
FOR COURSES ON THE DRAMA
DRAMATIC TECHNIQUE
By GEORGE PIERCE BAKER, Harvard University.
THE TUDOR DRAMA
By C. F. TUCKER BROOKE, Yale University.
An illuminating history of the development of English Drama during
the Tudor Period, from 1485 to the close of the reign of Elizabeth.
CHIEF CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS, First Series
Edited by THOMAS H. DICKINSON, formerly of the University of
Wisconsin.
CHIEF CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS. Second Series
Edited by THOMAS H. DICKINSON.
This book supplements the _First Series_ by making available in a
companion volume plays which represent the later tendencies in the
drama of Europe and America.
CHIEF EUROPEAN DRAMATISTS
Edited by BRANDER MATTHEWS, Columbia University, Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters.
This volume contains one typical play from each of the master
dramatists of Europe, with the exception of the English writers.
A STUDY OF THE DRAMA
By BRANDER MATTHEWS.
Devoted mainly to an examination of the structural framework which
the great dramatists of various epochs have given to their plays; it
discusses only incidentally the psychology, the philosophy, and the
poetry of these pieces.
THE CHIEF ELIZABETHAN DRAMATISTS
Edited by W. A. NEILSON, President of Smith College, formerly
Professor of English Literature in Harvard University.
This volume presents typical examples of the work of the most
important of Shakespeare’s contemporaries, so that, taken with
Shakespeare’s own works, it affords a view of the development of
the English drama through its most brilliant period.
A HISTORY OF THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA
By FELIX E. SCHELLING, University of Pennsylvania. 2 vols.
SHAKESPEAREAN PLAYHOUSES
By JOSEPH QUINCY ADAMS, Cornell University.
A History of English Theatres from the Beginnings to the Restoration.
Fully illustrated.
SHAKESPEARE QUESTIONS
By ODELL SHEPARD, Trinity College. _Riv. Lit. Series._ No. 246.
An outline for the study of the leading plays.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
PROBLEMS OF CONDUCT
BY
DURANT DRAKE
_Professor of Philosophy, Vassar College_
=_An Introductory Survey of Ethics_=
The _Boston Transcript_ says: “It is the great merit of Professor
Drake’s book that it moves always in a concrete sphere of life as we
daily live it. It never moralizes, it never lays down _obiter dicta_,
it simply talks over with us our personal problems precisely as a
keen, experienced, and always sympathetic friend might do. Through and
through scientific and scholarly, it is never academic in method and
matter.”
—————————
PROBLEMS OF RELIGION
BY
DURANT DRAKE
This book, like Professor Drake’s _Problems of Conduct_, represents
a course of lectures given for several years to undergraduates of
Wesleyan University. Their aim is to give a rapid survey of the field,
such that the man who is confused by the chaos of opinions on these
matters, and himself but little able to judge between conflicting
statements, may here get his bearings and see his way to stable belief
and energetic action.
—————————
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
THE CAMBRIDGE POETS—STUDENTS’ EDITION
Robert Browning’s Complete Poetical and Dramatic Works.
Burns’s Complete Poetical Works.
Byron’s Complete Poetical Works.
Dryden’s Complete Poetical Works.
English and Scottish Ballads.
Keats’s Complete Poetical Works and Letters.
Longfellow’s Complete Poetical Works.
Milton’s Complete Poetical Works.
Pope’s Complete Poetical Works.
Shakespeare’s Complete Works.
Shelley’s Complete Poetical Works.
Spenser’s Complete Poetical Works.
Tennyson’s Poetic and Dramatic Works.
Whittier’s Complete Poetical Works.
Wordsworth’s Complete Poetical Works.
ANTHOLOGIES: POETRY AND DRAMA
=The Chief Middle English Poets.= Translated and Edited by JESSIE
L. WESTON.
=The Chief British Poets of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries.=
Edited by W. A. NEILSON and K. G. T. WEBSTER.
=The Leading English Poets from Chaucer to Browning.= Edited by
L. H. HOLT.
=A Victorian Anthology.= Edited by EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN.
=The Chief American Poets.= Edited by C. H. PAGE.
=An American Anthology.= Edited by EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN.
=Little Book of Modern Verse.= Edited by JESSIE B. RITTENHOUSE.
R.L.S. No. 254.
=Second Book of Modern Verse.= Edited by JESSIE B. RITTENHOUSE.
R.L.S. No. 267.
=Little Book of American Poets.= Edited by JESSIE B. RITTENHOUSE.
R.L.S. No. 255.
=High Tide.= Edited by Mrs. WALDO RICHARDS. R.L.S. No. 256.
=A Treasury of War Poetry.= Edited by GEORGE H. CLARKE. R.L.S.
No. 262.
=The Chief Elizabethan Dramatists.= Edited by W. A. NEILSON.
=Chief European Dramatists.= In Translation. Edited by BRANDER
MATTHEWS.
=Chief Contemporary Dramatists, First Series.= Edited by
THOMAS H. DICKINSON.
=Chief Contemporary Dramatists, Second Series.= Edited by
THOMAS H. DICKINSON.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Riverside Literature Series
LIBRARY BINDING
—————————
=Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Piers the Ploughman.=
WEBSTER AND NEILSON.
=Chaucer’s The Prologue, The Knight’s Tale, and The Nun’s
Priest’s Tale.= MATHER.
=Ralph Roister Doister.= CHILD.
=The Second Shepherds’ Play, Everyman, and Other Early Plays=.
CHILD.
=Bacon’s Essays.= NORTHUP.
=Shakespeare Questions.= SHEPARD.
=Milton’s Of Education, Areopagitica, The Commonwealth.= LOCKWOOD.
=Boswell’s Life of Johnson.= JENSEN.
=Goldsmith’s The Good-Natured Man, and She Stoops to Conquer.=
DICKINSON.
=Sheridan’s The School for Scandal.= WEBSTER.
=Shelley’s Poems.= (=Selected.=) CLARKE.
=Huxley’s Autobiography, and Selected Essays.= SNELL.
=Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold.= JOHNSON.
=Selected Literary Essays from James Russell Lowell.= HOWE and
FOERSTER.
=Howells’s A Modern Instance.=
=Briggs’s College Life.=
=Briggs’s To College Girls.=
=Perry’s The American Mind and American Idealism.=
=Burroughs’s Studies in Nature and Literature.=
=Newman’s University Subjects.=
=Bryce’s Promoting Good Citizenship.=
=Eliot’s The Training for an Effective Life.=
=English and American Sonnets.= LOCKWOOD.
=The Little Book of American Poets.= RITTENHOUSE.
=The Little Book of Modern Verse.= RITTENHOUSE.
=High Tide.= An Anthology of Contemporary Poems. RICHARDS.
=Minimum College Requirements in English for Study.=
=The Second Book of Modern Verse.= RITTENHOUSE.
=Abraham Lincoln. A Play.= DRINKWATER.
—————————————————— End of Book ——————————————————
Transcriber’s Note (continued)
Punctuation errors in the general text have been repaired. In the
practice work examples however, which requires the student journalist
to mark up or rewrite a passage of text, there may be deliberate
punctuation errors and misspellings. These have been left unchanged.
Except as noted below, unusual or variable spelling and hyphenation
published in the original book have been retained in this transcription.
Page 10 — “semi-circular” changed to “semicircular” (semicircular
stereotype plates)
Page 52 — “newpapers” changed to “newspapers” (not what newspapers or
their readers want)
Page 67 — “defiintely” changed to “definitely” (be definitely fixed in
advance)
Page 112 — “near by” changed to “nearby” (the railroad yards nearby)
Page 113 — “day light” changed to “daylight” (Seized by thugs in broad
daylight)
Page 149 — “anyway” changed to “any way” (Q.—Did you regulate their
duties in any way?)
Page 159 — “acccumulated” changed to “accumulated” (protecting
gathered and accumulated)
Page 192 — “daintly” changed to “daintily” (daintily covering her
golden brown hair)
Page 212 — “requires” changed to “require” (Feature stories require
some literary ability)
Page 222 — “Hipprodrome” changed to “Hippodrome” (back to the
Hippodrome)
Page 260 — “Catch lines” changed to “Catch-lines” (Catch-lines, such
as “Society,”)
Page 260 — “catch lines” changed to “catch-lines” (the catch-lines
may indicate)
Page 267 — “catch lines” changed to “catch-lines” (The application of
these marks and the catch-lines)
Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and placed before the Index.