Background

"Because we’re journalists, we’re impatient. We want to gather the news as quickly as possible, using any technological resource available. And when we’re as sure of the story as we can be, we want to share it immediately, in whatever way reaches the most people. The Internet didn’t plant these ideas in our heads. We’ve always been this way."

-New York Times 

Why is it important to have different sources of news? It's the same reason why you wouldn't want to wear the same clothes everyday. Unless you prefer monotony and despise the complications and chaos that variance brings. To compare something a little more close to home, having only one media outlet for news could be compared to eating the porridge every single day, for every meal while everyone else tells you about their steaks and ice cream. Got your attention yet? Variance in news sources and media outlets allows us to develop cognitive skills in recognizing what is right, or what is just kind of stupid. More importantly we start to add different flavors, new angles and depth to our understanding of topics that affect our own life. This is part of being a natural and participating citizen of the world. 

According to a study done by Pew Research that spanned a 12-year period, the US has seen a trend in internet

 Print

Following the emergence of Gutenberg's revolutionary brainchild in the 15th century, the printing press heralded a surge in the circulation of written material. Pamphlets, newsletters and journals filled with ideas and all types of prose was now more accessible than all centuries before it combined. People during this age couldn't imagine a more dynamic or far reaching medium, and quickly relied on its contents as a primary source for information and education. Print would go on to enjoy a several hundred years as the kingpin of influence and the only medium with the ability to stand the test of time.

Fame and notoriety in the print world wasn't all too hard to come by in the 1800's with the popularization of yellow journalism and its increased employment to attract readership. It's comparable to that moment you find out as a 2-year-old that crying really will get you what you want. With only a handful of major newspaper companies, competition grew fierce and tactics used to solidify loyalty from their readers. Sensationalized headlines and stories that seemed too good to be true flooded the columns of papers and magazines alike in the early 1900's. Without a standardized collection of ethics or moral integrity policing the quality of the stories, the likes of Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer saw their respective papers grow by peddling falsehoods. 

Eventually seeing that quality was also important and the need for the news to be a reliable watchdog for responsible citizenship, the Sigma Delta Chi fraternity was founded in 1909 at DePauw University and with it the code of ethics was born. The group would go on to change their name to the Society of Professional Journalism in 1988. This spurred a movement by journalists to ever increasingly strive to preserve the reputation of journalism and the news as an almost sacred responsibility to to inform and help the masses make enlightened decisions. The 1940's to 1970's enjoyed a period of ethical renaissance as the journalism community with exposure of foul play by the government with the "Pentagon Papers," the Watergate Scandal, the Vietnam War and the McCarthy incident. The era of revival of integrity in reporting touted heroes like Edward Murrow, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who contributed to exposing corruption in the government. Others refused to gate keep truth and expose the world to the full graphic reality of the Vietnam war. Journalism recovered and became a force in exposing truth and expanding the coverage to include stories that society needs rather than what they wanted to hear. 

With the advent of the internet and tabloid magazines, newspaper companies struggled to stay on par with the profits they once enjoyed. The era following the 1970's was marked by a selling frenzy to ensure survival of respective newspaper companies, which was characterized by issue covers infested with popularized and celebrity stories. With the pressure to stay afloat, it almost seems impossible for newspapers to stay true their identity as informers of truth rather than peddlers of gossip and useless information. The following are the three newspapers chosen to analyze its effectiveness, commitment to informing the public and tailoring to needs instead of wants. Even if the public's faith in news reporting has gone down in recent years, they still believe in the responsibility for the media to serve as watchdog remains in tact (Pew, Watchdog, Aug. 2013).

The multi-Pulitzer prize winning New York Times was founded on September 18, 1851. With a reputation as one of the most circulated newspapers as well as one of the oldest in the country, the New York Times boasts significant contributions to journalism and society. Even though the NY Times has not enjoyed the same mass readership and popularity as other more circulated newspapers, the NY Times' commitment to objectivism has earned the paper a reputation for being one of editorial excellence. Despite not appealing to the reading consumerism of the masses, the NY Times success comes from its appeal to a "cultured and intellectual readership (Britannica, Times, 2013)."

However, this success as one of the most prestigious dailies in the world did not come without a cost. Initially, the paper suffered losses in profit but remained committed to bringing news from various international sources (Times, 2013). The NY Times is perhaps known heroically for its publishing of the "Pentagon Papers," and subsequent championing of First Amendment rights. 

I enjoy your circles. 

-Stephen Colbert

USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982. As one of the most circulated newspapers in the US, USA Today has been touted by critics and readers alike as "gimmicky" and "shallow ( USA Today, 2013)." Born into an era where instant gratification is king, USA Today adopted tactics such as bold print and colorful graphics to gain readership. Their emphasis on "packaging rather than substance" aided in the paper's growth from initial sentence of doom as observed by other journalism authorities (American Journalism Review, 2007). 

Labeled Al Neuharth's "technicolor brainchild," USA Today is known for its tendency to cater toward pop culture and sports in its early years. A change in editor to Ken Paulson brought changes to the content of the paper as well, with more emphasis on news stories rather than gossip and celebrities. Despite doubts of survival, the paper is now the most circulated in the US after a efforts to inject legitimacy in its reporting. Others still refute the paper's coming of age and attribute USA Today's circulation success to its appeal to the masses.

"Tomato Rodeo" is a video by Stephen Colbert illustrating the criticism commonly dished out to USA Today. 

Utah's oldest newspaper, Deseret News has a reputation for being a conservative daily due in large part to its readership consisting mainly of Christian LDS subscribers who have right-wing tendencies. The readership majority is in large part due to the fact that the paper is owned by the Deseret Managing Company, a company owned the LDS church. Thus, most of the articles and stories printed in this publication reflect, in large part, the beliefs and policies of the Church. 

The first issue, printed on June 15, 1850 was marked an attempt to better inform LDS migrators from eastern United States on the dealings throughout the country. 

Wire

Wire services first came to the earth via Agence France-Presse in 1835, as the brainchild of Charles Louis Havas. What originally began and Havas Press, Havas started out translating news and shipping it abroad to other English speaking countries such as the US and Britain in and a time of increased interest of international affairs. 

The sole purpose of wire or press services is to gather information and distribute the news internationally and nationally to radio, news or government agencies. Although wire services aren't known to publish stories, but are the suppliers. 

One of the characteristics of wire services that distinguishes it above other news or media outlets is its relay of news in real time. This is an important factor in its conception and development as a provider of news to a majority of all other mass media agencies. 

During the Mexican-American War of 1846, four newspapers in New York banded together to financially conjure a way to spread information and news brought by ships to Boston. Born out of a need to telegraphically get information out faster than ever before, the Associated Press since then has gained a reputation as an authority in journalism and news. 

The Associated Press is known for its quick adaptation to technology, quick news relay and dedication even in the face of danger. It's reported than more than 30 AP journalists have died in the pursuit of stories for the sake of journalism. 

The AP also enjoys many firsts in reporting some of the world's most historical moments, such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the death of Pope John Paul. Its dedication to stringent deadlines has earned the AP the nickname, the "Marine Corps of Journalism," implying that AP journalists are usually the first ones in and first ones, as popularized by the Marine Corps (AP History, 2013).

Founded in 1983 Federal News Service was created to provide transcripts of White House and proceedings of federal agencies. This coverage has expanded to include press releases, presidential remarks, congressional hearings and even an extensive media monitoring and translation services (FNS, 2013). 

Broadcast

Fox News is a cable news channel. Most people agree that Fox News is more conservative, which seems contradictory to their own slogan, which is "Fair and Balanced" It is owned by 21st Century Fox Entertainment and is broadcast from studios at the Rockefeller Center in New York City.

According to Bill Carter of The New York Times, "Fox News continues to be near the top in cable television in terms of the number of viewers it attracts". (Carter, 2013) Fox News is also "one of the highest per-subscriber fees in television, 94 cents a month, topped in cable television only by a few networks, most of which have expensive sports rights to pay." (Carter, 2013)

As far was revenue goes, "Fox News will take in $1.11 billion this year from subscription fees before it ever sells a single commercial" (Kagan, 2013) 

MSNBC is a cable news channel co-owned between General Electric and Microsoft. General electric owns many other companies like NBC, CNBC and various electronic and transportation companies. Most people can agree that MSNBC is a liberal media news channel, which I will go into more depth later.

According to newsbuster.org MSNBC has lost 45% of its viewers since last November. (Sheppard, 2013) As of November 29th, MSNBC has 645,000 total viewers during prime. Fox has 2 Million plus.  Why has there been a drop in viewers? Matthew Cooper of nationaljournalism.com says "Balancing liberal politics and news, politics and other subjects--it's all an issue for MSNBC this summer." (Cooper, 2013) 

As for MSNBC's reveune, I couldn't find any solid data to record. However, on money.cnn.com, General Electric as a whole made $146.9 billion dollars in revenue this past year. (money.cnn.com)  

CNN (short for cable news network) is another liberal media news channel. CNN is owned by Time-Warner. Time-Warner is a big media conglomerate that owns 33 magazines, 2 professional sports teams, HBO, Cinemax, Warner Bros., and many other t.v. channels and music labels.

I could not find how much revenue specifically CNN brings in, but nn money.cnn.com, Time-Warner is listed at making $28.7 billion in revenue this past year.

The amount of viewers CNN has continues to go down. John Nolte of breitbart.com said "The left-leaning CNN had a terrible November. Compared to November of 2012, the cable news network lost 59% of its total day audience and 62% of its primetime audience" (Nolte, 2013) 

Here is a cool chart explaining where the different News Corporations 

Internet

Buzzfeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti. Interestingly enough, he was also a co-founder of The Huffington Post, which explains the similarity in the two websites. Buzzfeed originally was launched to track viral activity on the internet, but has since expanded to reaching 80 million monthly visitors. (About, n.d.)

According to Alyson Shontell of Business Insider, Buzzfeed is valued at $200 million but has the potential to become a billion dollar company. (Shontell, 2013)

I think we all know Buzzfeed as a website that has lots of funny pictures and fun lists to look at. But according to Buzzfeed's "About" page, Buzzfeed is "focused on delivering high-quality original reporting, insight, and viral content across a rapidly expanding array of subject areas. Our technology powers the social distribution of content, detects what is trending on the web, and connects people in realtime with the hottest content of the moment." (About, n.d.)  (

We'll see how they do in the analysis section and if they really do live up to what they say. 

"Today's gossip is tomorrows news." This is Gawker's slogan, and by the sound of it, you can guess what is mainly consists of... GOSSIP!! Gawker is an independently owned blog that was created by Nick Denton in 2002 (Gawker Media, n.d.). Gawker was originally based in New York and had the slogan "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip. But since 2002, Gawker has grown to a wider audience than just Manhattan. Now Gawker has 45,000,000 monthly readers just in the US, 2,500,000 plus fans on Facebook and 3,300,000 followers on twitter.(Gawker Media, n.d.). Some people even refer to Gawker as "the biggest blog in the world." (Gawker Media, n.d.)

As far as revenue goes, I couldn't find a credible source that said how much they make. Many people said many different things.

The Huffington Post is a news and blog network. The Huffington Post was founded in 2005 and is currently being run by Arianna Huffington. In 2011, Huffington Post was bought by AOL for $315 million. (Silver, 2011) According to The New York times, "The Huffington Post receives huge amounts of traffic: about 15.6 million page views per weekday, according to Quantcast. But it also has a huge amount of content accounting for those page views. It publishes roughly 100 original pieces per day — paid and unpaid — in its politics section alone." (Silver, 2011)

 Some say the Huffington Post is a liberal news site that was created to battle the conservative news site The Drudge Report. (Stelter, 2008)  The Huffington Post's Slogan is "Breaking News and Opinion". To me, this sounds like a disclaimer that backs up the accusation that this is a more liberal news source. At least The Huffington Post isn't trying to make it sound like it is "fair and balanced" *cough Fox News.


*Copyright- This website is for educational purposes only.