Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers
Basic Books (13 February 1981)
One of Michael Schudson’s most influential works, and a foundational text in media studies and the history of journalism, Discovering the News traces how American journalism developed. From the early partisan papers to the rise of “objective” reporting in the twentieth century. That is, a model of journalism providing the facts alone, and allowing audiences to draw their own conclusions.
For a sociologist like Schudson, objectivity is not treated as a timeless, totalising professional norm, but something that is shaped by social, political, and cultural changes. If journalism changes (and it does), this is due to broader shifts in society. The progression of democracy, literacy rates, social reform movements, and changing technologies, among other things. Schudson stresses that journalism does not evolve in a vacuum, but is shaped by social needs and institutions.
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, newspapers were small, politically aligned, and often owned by parties. This model of journalism served a culture where newspapers were voices for various political factions, and not disinterested observers. Then “penny papers” like the New York Sun came along, and the model went from political to purely commercial papers, driven by advertising and focused on human interest stories and urban life (i.e. gossip). By the early twentieth century, objective reporting became a thing, where impartiality, fact-checking and verification, and the separation of fact and opinion became the new norm. This was in part due to society becoming more complex and bureaucratic, but also because progressive movements demanded more scientific approaches to public life, readers wanted reliable information, and journalists in turn wanted to be seen as professional.
By the mid-twentieth century, journalism and journalists were in something of a crisis. They began to question the notion of pure objectivity. Coverage of reform movements, recognition of systematic injustice, growing scepticism toward official sources, and key historical events like the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal blew the lid off how newspapers functioned. These forces pushed journalism toward interpretation, analysis, and investigative reporting.
Discovering the News is widely cited, and for good reason. At the time of its publication, it directly challenged the idea that journalism is necessarily trending towards “truth-seeking,” and it highlighted how news values reflected American society’s political culture. For contemporary media debates, it provides historical explanations for a range of talking points, and it helps students understand why objectivity in journalism is… well, such a big deal. How it arose as a model for reporting, and why it’s still contested.
Along with the works of Neil Postman, James Carey, and Walter Lippmann, Discovering the News is a core text in journalism schools. But like with many of these texts, I maintain that the non-journalist can read it and gain a solid grasp of the history of the field.
Lawrence Deveney 