The Birth of Journalism (1400–1799)
Around 1450, this German inventor developed the movable-type printing press, sparking the print revolution in Europe.
Who was Johannes Gutenberg?
Founded by Benjamin Day in 1833, this iconic New York newspaper cost only one cent and transformed journalism by focusing on local news, crime, and human interest stories rather than politics.
What is The New York Sun?
In the 1920s, the public began receiving live breaking news broadcast directly into their homes for the first time via this audio device.
What is the radio?
In 2012, this historic weekly news magazine announced it was entirely dropping its print edition to go digital-only, though it later returned to a print-and-digital hybrid model.
What is Newsweek?
Long before writing about a giant white whale, this author worked as a reporter and wrote travel dispatches for the New York Literary World.
Who is Herman Melville?
In 1476, he introduced the first printing press to England, setting up shop at Westminster and helping standardize the English language.
Who was William Caxton?
First published in 1827 by John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish, this was the first African American owned and operated newspaper in the United States.
What is Freedom's Journal?
The 1950s saw the rapid rise of this visual medium, which fundamentally transformed political journalism during the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates.
What is the television (TV)?
In 2003, this New York Times reporter resigned after it was discovered he had fabricated and plagiarized dozens of national news stories.
Who is Jayson Blair?
Under his real name, Samuel Clemens, this legendary humorist honed his sharp writing style as a reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.
Who is Mark Twain?
Originating in Venice, these early handwritten news sheets were sold for the price of a small coin, giving them their famous name.
What were avvisi (or gazettes)?
Pioneered during the Civil War to ensure essential battle details reached editors before telegraph lines were cut, this structural writing method places the most important facts at the very beginning of a story.
What is the inverted pyramid?
In 1980, Ted Turner revolutionized the industry by launching this network, the world's first 24-hour cable news channel.
What is CNN?
In 2015, The Boston Globe’s investigative team won immense praise—and a later Oscar-winning film adaptation—for exposing a massive cover-up within the Catholic Church. Name this specific team.
What is the Spotlight team?
This American novelist used his grueling early career as a crime reporter for The Kansas City Star to develop his signature short, punchy writing style.
Who is Ernest Hemingway?
This legal mechanism required printers to obtain official government approval before publishing any material, heavily suppressing early press freedom.
What was prior restraint (or pre-publication licensing)?
In 1889, this trailblazing female journalist for The New York World successfully emulated Jules Verne's fiction by traveling around the globe in just 72 days.
Who is Nellie Bly?
Dominating the early 1900s, this sensationalized, poorly researched style of journalism used dramatic headlines to boost circulation.
What is yellow journalism?
This independent American broadcast news program hosted by Amy Goodman grew immensely in popularity throughout the 2000s for its focus on war reporting, social justice, and grassroots activism.
What is Democracy Now!?
Before introducing the world to James Bond, this author worked as a foreign journalist for Reuters and served in Britain's Naval Intelligence Division.
Who is Ian Fleming?
This French writer and inventor built a mechanical calculator in the 1640s, but his deeply theological Lettres Provinciales also became an early masterpiece of underground, witty religious journalism.
Who was Blaise Pascal?
This media tycoon bought the New York Journal in 1895, entering a fierce circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer that relied on sensationalism and helped stoke public support for the Spanish-American War.
Who is William Randolph Hearst?
Introduced in the late 1990s, this digital platform format (originally called a "weblog") allowed independent individuals to publish commentary online.
What is a blog?
In 2020, this prestigious journalistic awarding body expanded its eligibility rules to allow audio journalism to compete for its own distinct category for the first time.
What is the Pulitzer Prize?
In 1835, the New York Sun published a wildly successful series of articles falsely claiming that a famous astronomer had discovered a civilization of bat-winged humans living on this celestial body.
What is the Moon?