A Consolidated
History of Media
4th Edition

by Stephen D. Perry, Ph.D.

 

 

 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 -
When Books Were the Only Media 1
Before the Printing Press 2
Gutenberg and the Earliest Press 3
Impacts on the 16th Century and Beyond 5
Printing for the First American Century 7

Chapter 2 -
More Than Books: Periodicals Get Their Start 9
The Colonial Press Era - 1700 to 1765 10
The struggle against prior restraint 11
A defense for seditious libel 12
The pre-magazine 13
The value of books to American colonists 15
The first magazines 16
The Revolutionary Press - 1765-1790 18

Chapter 3 -
The Press for a New Country 21
The Partisan Press - 1790 to 1830 21
The first targeted media 23
Magazines gain staying power 24
The Era of Massification - 1830 to 1870 25
The penny press and Benjamin Day 26
The telegraph & instant news 27
Horace Greeley and the personal editors 28
Magazine circulation growth 31
Books reach a mass audience 32

Chapter 4 -
The Post Civil War Press 33
The Era of Yellow Journalism - 1870 to 1900 34
The Era of Reform Journalism - 1900 to 1919 38
Big business takes hold 40
The Era of Jazz Journalism - 1920 to 1935 41
The Age of Consolidation - 1936 to 1980 44
Television forces many changes 45

Chapter 5 -
History of the Film Industry 49
The First Movies 50
Projecting for the public 52
Telling Stories 54
Griffith and the Feature Length Film 56
The Early Industry 58
Introducing sound 60
The golden age and its decline 61

Chapter 6 -
Origins of Radio Broadcasting 63
The First Rapid Long Distance Communication Method 64
Transmission Through the Air 65
Marconi invents the wireless 67
Improvements allow voice transmission 68
The first regular broadcasts 70
Licensing radio broadcasters 71

Chapter 7 -
Commercial Radio Broadcasting 75
The Stations that Would Be First 75
Developing Radio as an Industry 77
The birth of network radio 79
The government regulates American broadcasting 81
Programming on the networks 84
Political programs on radio 86
Programming independent stations 87
Interaction with the audience 90

Chapter 8 -
Broadcasting Adds Pictures 93
The Invention of Television 93
Radio Hits Its Golden Age 97
The fight for radio news 98
New radio networks emerge 100
The Development of FM Radio 101
Television Broadcasting Begins 103
Commercial television broadcasting 104
Tall antennas and long cables 107
The birth of television news 108
Television's golden years 110
Television moves a nation 112
The film industry's reaction to TV 113
Radio's reinvention in response to TV 114
Conclusion 115
Bibliography 116
Index 119