Newspaper History and Analysis

The definition of a newspaper, as said by Business Dictionary is a form of printed media that can be found weekly or daily. It is a folded book of papers that is generally sectioned off in different categories based on subject and content. The most common format will have the top news stories on the front and work into the more minute articles that may be more local.

The first newspaper in America was found in Boston during the 1960's. It was known as Publick Occurrences, but it was quickly shut down. The first successful and long running newspaper was the Boston News-Letter. Among the newspapers today some of the oldest and long running newspapers include the New York Post, New Hampshire Gazette, Hartford Courant, Augusta Chronicle, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

I chose The Wall Street Journal to use as a primary resource for my research. The top stories of the newspaper on Oct. 12, 2015 include a story on the turmoil in Turkey after a terrorist attack, the SEC cutting the use of private judges in court cases, the threat of a cyber war creating a new arms race, and continually followed by political and economic news.Newspapers like The Wall Street Journal used to be called "newspapers of record" because they  would report only local events and keep citizens in that jurisdiction up to date on the city's on-goings. Secondly, the newspaper was able to reach high quality and standards of journalism and writing about topics of interest of greater importance. The first "newspaper of record" was The New York Times. Other examples of a "newspaper of record" include The Guardian, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.

In a general comparison and overview of newspapers versus social media (i.e Facebook, Instagram, etc.) it is very easy to spot one major difference  the type of connection varies. Social Media is a more personal way to reach out and find out about news that would only relate to topics you enjoy reading and even keeping up to date with familial on goings. Newspapers like The Wall Street Journal offer information about world news and current events around the globe and continental United States. Another key difference is presentation. Social media like Instagram is all pictures and small captions and even Facebook is similar with the reposting of news articles, where the only visible portion is a picture and the headline. Newspapers usually consist more of words and full length articles with a picture or two scattered about to give you a better idea of whats going on.