• Highlights from the history of journalism, from Mark Twain and Lois Lane to All the President's Men and Good Night, and Good Luck
• Five myths about reporters
• 30 slang terms for "reporter"

THE BIRTH OF JOURNALISM

• 1690: Benjamin Harris published the first and only issue of Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick.

• 1735: Freedom of the press was strengthened in the colonies when John Peter Zenger, jailed for libel for after printing accusations of official corruption, was acquitted.

• 1729: Ben Franklin took over the Pennsylvania Gazette, making it the boldest and best paper in the colonies.
• 1765: The Stamp Act imposed a heavy tax on printed matter. Editors protested and colonists united in forcing repeal.
• Revolutionary debate heated up. Editors grew bolder, exerting political influence and exhorting military action.
• By 1775 Isaiah Thomas, publisher of The Massachusetts Spy, was demanding independence from England.
• 1776: The Declaration of Independence first appeared publicly in the Pennsylvania Evening Post and was reprinted in 20 other colonial papers.
• 1791: The Bill of Rights provided that "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech or of the press."

NEWS IN THE 19^TH CENTURY

• Innovations in printing: cheaper paper and faster presses made printing newspapers affordable and available like never before, especially in growing urban areas.
• 1833 Benjamin Day began selling the New York Sun for a penny a copy, pioneering the idea of "mass media."
• A new kind of newspapering aimed at the interests of the common citizen.

• The biggest and best newspapers began hiring and training reporters to cover news in a professional way.

• Yellow journalism: sensational stories, lavish use of pictures, comics, features, crusades, publicity stunts and rumors.
• Excesses reached a climax as editors William Randolph Hearst (New York Journal) and Joseph Pulitzer (The World) battled for supremacy in New York, by then the nation's media center.
• Hearst, Pulitzer and the Spanish-American War: Sensational coverage of the Cuban rebels' fight for freedom from Spain inflamed readers and pressured politicians. War was declared; circulation skyrocketed.

• Radio and TV brought an end to newspapers' media monopoly.
  • Radio: the first medium to provide a 24-hour stream of news coverage.
  • TV journalism came of age in the 1960s (1963 nonstop coverage of the Kennedy assassination).
• Newspapers' response to competition: tighter writing, better formatting; improved design, corporate consolidation.