| Press criticism has long existed in the history of American journalism, which can be traced to the time when the modern newspaper came into being in the 17th century. But it was not until 1960s when the press criticism mechanisms of the US media had been so established that it entered the stage of professional criticism. This thesis examines the evolvement of the American press criticism from 1880s to 1960s, during which it went through significant changes. The conclusion drawn in this thesis is that press criticism played a great role in promoting the development and reform of media.This thesis starts with the Party Press which Started in the late 18th century, characterized by press conflicts among different partisan newspapers. Though the press conflicts in this period possessed no distinguishing characteristics of the press criticism of the modern sense , it can be defined as press criticism-the original form of the press criticism. Its emergence was not only the outcome of the then circumstances but also the result of the journalism development. The press conflicts in this period contributed a lot to American journalism in that it resulted in the emergence of the newspaper editor, the regular editorial as well as the deepening of cognition of the press freedom.It was with the deterioration of the commercial newspapers in morality that press criticism of the modern sense came into existence, thetarget of which was at the moral decadence-the typical feature ofsensational newspapers and yellow newspapers. The criticism against yellow newspaper resulted in the rapid development of the journalism in the following aspects: the founding of journalism schools, the establishment of journalism ethical standards, as well as the occurrence of objectivity ideals, all of which pushed journalism forward into its profession.In this abstract, the criticism during Muckraking Movement, whichis a separate part in the thesis, is included in that of the commercial media.In 1930s, with the increasingly violent competition among newspapers, more and more chains (two or more newspapers under one ownership) came into existence. The concentration of regional groups or national strings of newspapers under a powerful press baron with definite political views and ambitions had been the target of the critics, the focus of which was on the press freedom being in danger due to the control of the lords of the press. With the pressure of the critics, A Free And Responsible Press arose in which the social responsibility was greatly stressed.Since then, the essence of the journalism ideals-the freedom of the press, the journalism ethical codes, the objectivity ideal, the social responsibility-had been given birth with the pressure of critics.While press criticism promoted the reform of the press , the criticism itself entered its professional stage. The establishment of the self-regulation of the media( such as press councils, internal ombudsman, journalism review etc) marked the occurrence of professional criticism. This thesis has three features.1. It focuses on examining closely the positive role of the Party Press which gave impetus to the development of journalism.2. Based on the analysis of the criticism, a conclusion is drawn that it was during the Muckraking Movement that the occurrence of the American journalism in a real sense came into existence.3. A series of pictures are involved in the thesis to illustrate the evolvement of the press criticism. |
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