Views on the News: The Developing Editorial Syndrome, 1500-1800 (New Horizons in Journalism)

By Howard Rusk Long and Jim Allee Hart

A modern definition of the newspaper editorial is: a presentation of fact and opinion in a concise, logical, and pleasing order, written to entertain, to influence opinion, or to interpret significant news. In its be­ginnings from moralistic British ballads of the sixteenth century to state­ments of principles and policies dedicated to the public interest in the colonial period in both England and America, the development of the editorial was in this direction. Yet, as this study concludes, in its development in the late eighteenth century in this country the greatest contribu­tion of the practitioners of the developing editorial did not come from the new trends and forms of commentary they set. Unwittingly, it came from their printing of political opinion influential and powerful enough to sway a people to form a new nation, a practice that has interesting parallels with the underground press in the United States today.

In concentrating on the beginnings of the newspaper editorial, Mr. Hart is able to explore in depth the editorial's evolution and to document his account with examples which are as colorful as they are convincing. The result of his close investigation is the first comprehensive history of the newspaper editorial. Extensively indexed and documented, the work will be an invaluable reference work and an important new perspective on journalism in the colonial period in this country.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809304554
• ISBN13: 9780809304554
• Release Date: December 1970
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.9" x 6.0"