Episode #228: How Newspaper Writing Has Evolved Over The Centuries

Just to give you a basic idea on how long I've been blogging, this is a pic of my daughter taken circa early 2000s. She will be entering grad school this fall some 17+ years later. Imma feeling really old.😎

Newspaper writing has really evolved over the past two hundred years or so. What was acceptable to write about then, is now not acceptable; and what wasn't then, is more or less accepted practice now.

Note: what I'm about to state is pretty much verifiable. If you do a bit of Googling, or check out the various microfilm/digital archives in the possession of public libraries/historical societies/colleges, you will have a good understanding of what I'm presenting here.

As an example, let's take a look at crime and how it was reported back in the 18th thru early 20th century then, and then compare it to how it's reported today.

Back then, because newspapers were really the only game in town, the more lurid the crime, the better it was for the average writer. Because, let's face it, the philosophy of today's "if it bleeds, it leads", was very much the norm. Didn't really matter what kind of serious crime it was, it was reported to the smallest graphic detail. Now unlike today, where certain crimes involve the kind of victim where you would sensibly respect their privacy by not stating identifiable personal details (and you can take a good guess on what those would be); back then, every identifiable personal detail was given, including the lurid description of the actual crime itself.

It was definitely a shock to my system to see how certain violent crimes were reported on. However, what was also a certain shock to the system was how they censored certain words, either substituting opaque words for actual words {e.g. "ravished" for the actual vulgar description} or doing something like implying what a "bad" word was without actually writing the full word out {e.g. instead of writing "damned" they would write "d______" instead. This practice was widely used to skirt libel/slander laws as well}.

Today, a lot has changed. The truly graphic descriptions have mostly been moved to books/magazines/other video mediums, leaving the (mostly) PG-13 descriptions intact and the plethora of personal details in regards to certain crimes has been judiciously censored over the preceding decades, so that the privacy rights of the individual are respected.

Now, lets move on to advertising and see how that has evolved over the centuries. 

Back in the later part of the 19th century (1860's to maybe 1880's) advertising copy was often very outlandish, fanciful, braggadocios and at times, extremely racist. Now what I mean by the last part, is that during the latter part of the 19th century, racist tropes/stereotypes were on full display in the ad campaigns that dealt with patent medicines. Whatever offensive trope that you know of now, was effectively used in selling certain types of patent medicines, and other assorted non-consumable products.

The one that always stuck out to me, simply because it was so blatantly racist (but keep in mind this was the normal mindset for the 18th century and beyond), was the ad campaign for a patent medicine called "Dr. Sanford's Ginger" which was marketed as a remedy for an upset stomach. I would love to describe to you the reader what was contained within the ad, but the pragmatic side of me hates having anything that I say being misconstrued into something that I would stupidly believe in (yes, this has happened to me over the past 15+ years on FB). Instead, I will strongly encourage that you the reader, Google the phrase noted above to see what exactly I'm talking about.

Now, in the 21st century, advertising/marketing campaigns have become (mostly) less offensive to the average consumer. Blatantly racist tropes/stereotypes have long been discarded in favor of real world scenarios and the often gentle mocking of normal stereotypes, whether it's a person/place/thing. It's also been moved more towards the Internet (YouTube especially) where you can explicitly target without offending others.

Newspaper writing has evolved over the centuries to the point where that tired well-worn cliche of "less is more", actually does work. The better you can narrow your target with your writing (I often compare average newspaper stories to writing micro flash fiction), the more that particular reader will actually pay attention. At least, that is the working theory that is often ignored these days.

Please tune in next week when I will pontificate about another historical newspaper tidbit that was all the rage in the 18th through the early 20th century but has recently fallen by the wayside: frequency of publication!

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