News Media in the United States

By Christine Hall

Series Presented by FTJ Senior University
May 1 – June 12

Due to space requirements, you must RSVP to Jana Wennstrom to attend any Senior University Class.  253-756-6219 or jwennstrom@franketobeyjones.com

This series of six sessions will focus on the role and impact, past and present, of the news media in the United States with an emphasis on print media. Each session will delve into a particular topic and time period to help answer the question: what is the future of the news media!

Thursday, May 1
News Media in the United States: Past, Present and Future – Misinformation, Disinformation and Fake News: Threats and Fears in Today’s News Industry

The last presidential election didn’t create the problems of misinformation, disinformation and fake news, but it certainly exacerbated preexisting concerns and introduced a host of new fears. And these concerns and fears are not without merit. Several studies have indicated the negative impacts of false news and misinformation on everything from voting to the economy to climate change. This session considers these impacts and raises questions concerning the possibilities of legitimate news sources circumventing those damaging untruths. 2:00 pm, Bristol View 1^st Floor Bowditch Room

Thursday, May 8
News Media in the United States: Past, Present and Future – News in the United States: The Earliest Years

In 1786 Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to his friend James Currie: “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” This sentiment was popular among the Founding Fathers and the commonly accepted understanding of it is that United States has held it in high regard since the country’s earliest days. But, just how committed were the early colonies to the protection of free speech and press? This session takes a historical look at the press in colonial times, focusing particularly on the tension between the discourse about freedom of the press and the actual treatment of the press at the time. 2:00 pm, Bristol View 1^st Floor Bowditch Room

Thursday, May 22
News Media in the United States: Past, Present and Future – The Rise of Mass Communication: Information, Advocacy and Sensationalism

In the late 19th century, technological advancements in paper production, along with the onset of the industrial revolution, made newspapers cheap to produce and ushered in the rise of the mass press in the United States. But just what did “news” production look like in this new world of mass communication? This session seeks to lay out the variety of approaches used by newspapers at the time with a focus on the New York Time – the start of our modern-day objective press, tabloid/sensational journalism, and the advocacy press. In each of these types of press, we can see correlations to journalism concerns still present today. 2:00 pm, Bristol View 1^st Floor Bowditch Room

Friday, May 23
News Media in the United States: Past, Present and Future – Newspapers Post-World War II: Propaganda, Distrust and the Creation of a Professional Code

The advent of radio in the 1920s magnified both the appeal and the power of the mainstream media in U.S. society. As this societal power increased, political leads, such as Adolph Hitler, would begin to use this new tool as a way to promote propaganda and secure and expand their own political interests. Following World War II, many Americans began to actively distrust the media, raising concerns about the truthfulness of the “news” and shunning mainstream media sources as a result of those fears. This session lays out the trajectory of the increase in public mistrust and elaborates on the ways in which the media responded, a response that led to a “professionalized” system of news production that we still employ today. 2:00 pm, Bristol View 1^st Floor Bowditch Room

Thursday, June 5
News Media in the United States: Past, Present and Future – News as Big Business: Media Monopolies Change How Newspapers Operate

In 1983, communication scholar Ben Bagdikian published the first edition of The Media Monopoly, a book which called attention to the dwindling number of media owners and the effects that this concentration of media ownership was having on the content of the news. Around that same time, Gannett, a company that Bagdikian at one-time called “the largest and most aggressive newspaper chain in the United States,” launched USA Today, a newspaper focused more on soundbites and images than analysis and information. This session dives into the political economic critique of the news industry with an emphasis on teasing out the possible implications for the creation and access to valid information in a system driven by corporate profits. 2:00 pm, Bristol View 1^st Floor Bowditch Room

Thursday, June 12
News Media in the United States: Social Media, Changing Readership, and Shrinking Newsrooms: Where Do We Go From Here?

Since almost the very beginning of mainstream, mass media critiques have warned of the impending end of quality journalism in general and newspapers more specifically. But, despite a hundred years of doom and gloom predictions for the industry, newspapers still exist and quality journalism is still an ideal that many aspire towards. In this final session, we will consider where the news industry is today, including considering the impacts of social media – both negative and positive, the shifting landscape of broadcast news, and the predictions for the future of the newspaper industry. 2:00 pm, Bristol View 1^st Floor Bowditch Room

Presenter Bio:

Chris Demaske is a professor of communication in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Tacoma where she has served on the faculty since Autumn 2001. Her research explores issues of power associated with free speech and free press, resulting in a theoretical and analytical critique of First Amendment applications in areas including hate speech, Internet pornography, political dissidence, reporters’ rights, high school censorship, incitement, and academic freedom. The bulk of her research has focused on exploring the complicated relationship between the First Amendment and culturally disempowered groups in the United States. That inquiry culminated in the publication of several articles and two books. Her first book, Modern Power and Free Speech: Contemporary Culture and Issues of Equality, (2009), suggested a new legal framework for case analysis that would complicate the currently applied content neutrality principle. Her most recent book, Free Speech and Hate Speech in the United States: The Limits of Toleration (2020), uses a social justice framework to address the question: What can be done to curb the proliferation of hate speech and hate acts in the United States? She is currently the coordinator for the Legal Pathways Advisory Board, and she is the co-founder and supervisor of the Journalism Exchange Program with Moscow State University in Russia.