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In 1917, after the United States joined the war in Europe and was no longer politically neutral, on the American front, the German ethnic press became a target for censors and critics. The general assumption was that German language papers bred disloyalty among German immigrant communities and posed a threat to the United States' war efforts. This study explores the editorial and political views of the German-language press during the summer of 1917 by assessing the tone of a sample of German language mainstream newspapers during July 1, 1917 through September 30, 1917. The findings show that the overall coverage was less loyal to Imperial Germany than had been argued by U.S. officials and censors. In an effort to assimilate, German immigrant newspapers widely published the U.S. government's official position, showed support for the American war effort, and focused on cultural affairs of the immigrant community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how leading provincial newspapers in Edwardian Liverpool incorporated innovations popularised by the daily mass press into their reporting of election-time politics. Drawn from coverage of four general elections, this paper charts how changes in these Liverpudlian newspapers' political coverage showcased a provincial press that was inspired by powerful national competitors, and utilised some of their innovations to the language and formatting of political reporting to attempt to speak more directly to local readerships. This evolution in content both 'localised' and 'sensationalised' these newspapers' approaches to political reporting, and contributed to a broader, positive recalibration of their purpose as provincial newspapers and their connection to their localities. Through this case study, this paper also challenges historical understandings of the national New Journalism's impact on the provincial newspaper industry, as well as the nature of its political content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early twentieth century, American newspapers enjoyed high circulations while presenting readers with diverse and plentiful content. After 1920, radio broadcasting made even more information available for public consumption, giving audience members an abundant range of media choices. During a time of plenty for readers and listeners, companies in the business of media struggled with the opposite problem: scarcity. As the amount of media content proliferated, the practical ability to disseminate it was determined by the access to scarce resources, and this was true for both radio broadcasting and newspaper publishing. In many respects, the history of the American mass media in the early twentieth century might best be told as a tale of two scarcities, one—the electromagnetic spectrum—defined by absolute limits and the other—the newsprint—defined by access to markets for a particular material, the supply of which often fluctuated in availability and price. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines newspaper cartels, a largely unoccupied field in media history, from the perspective of longevity. We analyse Finnish newspaper industry from the 1910s to 1970s and show that newspapers sought to regulate various aspects of competition, such as subscription prices, advertisement tariffs, and newsprint prices. Data indicates that political rivalry shaped the newspaper cartel collaboration until late 1950s: the cartel was set up by right-wing and centrist papers and, unlike in other Nordic countries, the Social Democratic press remained outside of the association until 1958. Political shocks of the Finnish Civil War in 1918 and the Second World War also changed the composition of the cartel. The era of private cartels in the newspaper industry gradually started to fade away as a result of anti-cartel laws in the 1960s and governmental anti-inflation measures in the 1970s. We conclude that the economics of newspaper industry and the cartelisation of the wider business environment, newsprint suppliers in particular, encouraged newspapers to co-operate with each other. The results of this article increase the understanding on the collaborative and competitive environment of newspaper companies, but also contributes to broader questions on cartels and their inner dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an overview of specific characteristics of newspaper output and publishing trends in Latvia, aiming to assess whether the newspaper output in Latvia plays the roles theoretically ascribed to newspapers, namely, the roles related to democracy and community building. It is argued that media pluralism is crucial for executing these roles. The assessment of pluralism is based on an exploratory analysis of quantitative data on newspaper output in Latvia. The analysis is accompanied by a discussion of challenges experienced in the newspaper publishing field in Latvia and elsewhere that can potentially hinder the ability of newspapers to execute the roles theoretically ascribed to them. Finally, insights gained during the research process are shared regarding research required to further the analysis of newspaper output in terms of plurality in the sense of access to different news sources and, by extension, perspectives and public representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the changing journalistic norms and roles in terms of mobile and sedentary news work at the end of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The analysis draws on the research into the small everyday tools of bureaucracy and science. The focus is on the quill, the scissors and paste pot, the body of the reporter and the computer. Journalistic neutrality and truth seem at any given time to be defined in line with the practices made possible by the available tools. A change in tools makes new practices possible, meaning that the norms have to be redefined. Journalism was once synonymous with mobile reporters reporting on events they themselves witnessed. Journalism today, however, is often sedentary copy-and-paste work, much resembling the scissors-and-paste journalism of the nineteenth century. Comparison reveals that such transmission of texts and images produced by someone else always runs the risk of reproducing the voices of the elites. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The enormous changes wrought in the British newspaper industry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought about a revolution in newspaper reading habits, financing and influence, all aspects of which have been well documented by historians of the press. But what of the contributor, particularly the freelance whose millions of words formed, mostly anonymously, the content of the new mass market press? How did writers negotiate changes in the literary marketplace during this time as editors demanded more ‘news’ and less in the way of whimsical paragraphing, and sketches, the traditional newspaper output of the professional man, or woman, of letters? Through the study of memoirs, correspondence and the fictional output of contributors to the press during this time, it is possible to discern the often fraught relations between writers and their most lucrative market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

First published in January 1905, the Irish Independent is widely acknowledged as having been influenced by developments in journalism first associated, almost a decade earlier, with the Daily Mail in Britain. However, this article argues that while the Irish Independent adopted many elements of New Journalism its proprietor, William Martin Murphy was strategically selective in how elements were incorporated within his new venture. The success of the Irish Independent can be viewed as the outcome of two processes: the selection and adaption of some aspects of New Journalism to create a successful commercial newspaper and also the exclusion of what were considered the less desirable elements of New Journalism that may have damaged the title’s circulation in a country where the power of the Roman Catholic Church was strong. Murphy, in effect, ‘shopped’ for aspects of New Journalism as practiced elsewhere that he felt were most suitable to the local Irish market. In the latter respect, this article highlights the importance of considering the local context when discussing the universality of journalism practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The crisis of World War I, including the challenges of reporting from the fighting front, sparked public discussion about the reliability and status of journalism. In response, unprecedented changes to the education of journalists were introduced around the world, including in Australia. By the 1920s, the majority of Australian universities offered a Diploma in Journalism, developed in collaboration with the Australian Journalists' Association (AJA). Yet despite the AJA's commitment to developing professional standards, by 1945 these courses were either defunct or struggling. This article explores the introduction and subsequent failure of tertiary journalism education in the context of discussions within the AJA about educational 'relevance', and whether journalists required improved 'thinking' or improved 'skills'. Analysis of the establishment of these university courses highlights debates around the professionalism, status, and ethical practice of journalism in the interwar years, at a time when the newspaper industry was expanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over a century ago, Esperanto journals carried messages of world peace and greater understanding among cultures to all parts of the world and sought to build an international community of speakers by articulating a sentiment of transnational common identity. This study investigates such efforts based on Esperanto journal editors' own published words, detailing how they conceived of their work in the service of Esperantism. Digitised archives of scanned Esperanto journals (selected from 1889-1912, a formative period in the Esperanto movement) provide the primary source material for this study. The study investigates how Esperanto periodicals served as venues for expression of feelings of transnational connectedness. This research illuminates an actively engaged readership that can be seen as a precursor to today's notions of participatory journalism [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]