Media History I

Fake News, circa 1835:  The Moon Hoax

Daily Newspaper Circulation in the United States:

1850	758,000
1860	1,478,000
1870	2,602,000
1880	3,566,000
1890	8,387,000
1900	15,102,000
1909	24,212,000
1919	33,029,000
1929	42,015,000
1939	42,966,000

Source: Historical Statistics of the United States, 810.

Example of Remington drawing (see p. 12) along with the myth (see p 16)




Households with Radio Sets:

1922	60,000
1927	6,750,000
1932	18,450,000
1937	24,500,000
1942	30,600,000

Source: Historical Statistics of the United States, 796.

Herb Morrison of WLS Chicago reports on the Hindenberg:






Households with Television Sets:

1946	8,000
1949	940,000
1952	15,300,000
1955	30,700,000
1958	41,924,000

Murrow speech 1958: 

One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news. Each of the three is a rather bizarre and demanding profession. And when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles. The top management of the networks, with a few notable exceptions, has been trained in advertising, research, sales or show business. But by the nature of the corporate structure, they also make the final and crucial decisions having to do with news and public affairs. Frequently they have neither the time nor the competence to do this. It is not easy for the same small group of men to decide whether to buy a new station for millions of dollars, build a new building, alter the rate card, buy a new Western, sell a soap opera, decide what defensive line to take in connection with the latest Congressional inquiry, how much money to spend on promoting a new program, what additions or deletions should be made in the existing covey or clutch of vice-presidents, and at the same time -- frequently on the same long day -- to give mature, thoughtful consideration to the manifold problems that confront those who are charged with the responsibility for news and public affairs.