The perfecting of photo-engraving processes, by which half-tone illustrations and zinc etchings can be made rapidly at relatively small cost, has added another important feature to the newspaper. Photographs of persons, places, and events that appear in the day’s news are now quickly reproduced by the newspaper half-tone. Cartoons printed by means of zinc etchings occupy a prominent place in many papers.
Aims of the Newspaper. The present-day newspaper, as a result of this evolution, undertakes to accomplish five ends: (1) to furnish news, (2) to interpret the news and to discuss current issues, (3) to give useful information and practical advice, (4) to supply entertaining reading matter, and (5) to serve as an advertising medium. The primary purpose of the newspaper is undoubtedly to furnish news and editorial discussions; the secondary one to supply useful information and entertaining reading matter. These results, however, can be accomplished with the present small cost to the reader only by reason of the fact that the newspaper is a valuable purveyor of advertising publicity.
The interrelation between the advertising matter and the other contents of the newspaper is a vital one. The value of newspaper advertisements is determined by the number and the character of the persons who read the “ads,” that is, by the circulation of the newspaper. The circulation, in turn, depends on the amount and the character of the news and other features of the newspaper. Increases in circulation make possible higher advertising rates, and higher rates produce larger revenues from advertisements. The greater income received from advertising and circulation is generally used to increase and improve the reading matter. Decreases in advertising revenues usually mean retrenchment in expenses and a reduction of reading matter. If this reduction in news and other features of the newspaper is marked, the paper will lose readers. Advertising, circulation, and the character of the contents of a newspaper are thus closely bound up with one another.
Recognition of Its Public Function. That in its primary purpose, of furnishing the news of the day with an interpretation of it and a discussion of current issues, the newspaper is a public institution, has been recognized from earliest times both in this country and abroad. Although the American newspaper has at all times been a private enterprise, its public function has always been emphasized. In guaranteeing the freedom of the press, the framers of the first amendments to the Constitution realized that it is necessary in a democracy to have full information and free discussion on all questions, social, economic, and political. They believed as did Milton when he wrote, in his great defense of liberty of the press addressed to the English Parliament at the very dawn of English journalism, “Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity must be much arguing, much writing, many opinions, for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.”
The responsibility of the press to the public has been repeatedly emphasized. In condemning the appointment of editors to public office as a means of securing their support, Daniel Webster, in 1832, declared: “In popular governments, a free press is the most important of all agents and instruments. The conductors of the press, in popular governments, occupy a place in the social and political system of highest consequence. They wear the character of public instructors.”
That the newspapers are the teachers of the people has been reiterated on the platform, in the pulpit, and in the newspapers themselves. Wendell Phillips, a generation ago, in speaking of the importance of newspapers in this country, said: “It is a momentous, yes, a fearful truth, that millions have no literature, no schools, almost no pulpit but the press. It is parent, school, college, pulpit, theatre, example, counselor, all in one. Let me make the newspapers, and I care not who makes the religion or the laws.”
The Function of Newspapers in a Democracy. To accept this generally recognized function of the newspaper as the distributor of information on all the varied subjects presented in the day’s news, is to give the newspaper a place of great responsibility in a democracy like ours. If we consider only its news-distributing function and disregard editorial influence, the place of the newspaper is still a vital one in our country, for the success of a democratic form of government depends upon intelligent action by the individual voter. Such voting must be based upon accurate information concerning all important events of the day,—events of a social, commercial, and industrial significance, as well as those of political import,—because many of the important questions upon which the voter should cast an intelligent ballot concern economic and social problems rather than purely political ones. Practically the only source of information for the average voter concerning local, national, and international events, is the newspaper.
The rapidly increasing tendency of citizens in voting to disregard party affiliations, and the recent extension of methods of direct making of laws by means of the initiative and the referendum, require that citizens have accurate information on a great variety of subjects to enable them to vote intelligently on men and issues. Any influence that tends to affect the accuracy of statements concerning current events thereby tends to affect the basis underlying the opinions of the voters. Upon the accuracy of the newspapers in matters of news, therefore, depends to a great extent the character of our government.
Limitations to Accuracy and Completeness. Absolute accuracy in gathering and presenting the news is subject to human limitations. Seldom do two eye-witnesses from whom the reporter gets information agree in their accounts of what happened. The reporter must judge of the value of the testimony of each witness, and must make up a composite account of the truth as he sees it in these different narratives. The copy-reader, in editing the reporter’s story, frequently finds it necessary to cut it down considerably because of the importance of other news. Again the accuracy of the report may be affected by reason of this “boiling down.” The headline writer, working under strict limitations of space, may modify the impression produced upon the reader by the original story. Even on the mechanical side the accuracy of the news may be affected by a careless compositor or proof-reader. The rapidity with which all the processes of newspaper making are performed greatly increases the possibility of error. The personal equation, for which allowance is made in all scientific and technical work, enters into every part of the process of newspaper making, from the gathering and writing of the news by the reporter, through the editing of it and the writing of a headline for it, to the compositor, proof-reader, and make-up man. The chances of printing inaccurate statements under such conditions may be reduced to a minimum only by the exercise of the greatest possible care on the part of all those concerned in the rapid production of newspapers, but mistakes of this type can never be entirely eliminated.
Failure to give a complete report of the day’s news is due in part to the amount of news available. Inasmuch as the average newspaper in a large city receives from two to three times as much news daily as it can publish, it is necessary for editors to select from the available news, and to decide quickly which news is the most important for their readers. The fact that this news comes in by mail, telephone, and telegraph, as well as from reporters, at intervals throughout the day and the night, makes it impossible for the editors to judge with absolute accuracy of the relative value of each piece of news as it is received. Consequently news values are constantly being readjusted as each important piece of news reaches the office. In the final decision in regard to what news shall be printed, what shall be omitted, and how much space shall be given to each piece of news that is published, the personal judgment of the editors is the determining factor.