Suchergebnisse

The increasing international tension in the last quarter of the year put additional emphasis on publicity and propaganda in the battle for men's minds. The Voice of America was considerably strengthened, with promises of still more support to come. In domestic radio, the Columbia Broadcasting System's method of color television was approved by the FCC, only to precipitate a louder debate and a succession of court actions… . In the field of advertising, Dr. George Gallup announced a new evaluation technique which some thought might be as revolutionary as his readership principles have been in the past twenty years… . In the field of news writing and press responsibility several writers were still concerned with what they considered to be a qualitative weakening of journalistic standards. These appeared to be the leading professional problems as the second half of the twentieth century began. —W. F. S.

Economic pressures constituted an ever greater threat to domestic and world press freedom in mid-1951. This was dramatized by the suspension of the St. Louis Star-Times and the transition of that community into the growing column of non-competitive newspaper territories. Rising labor and newsprint costs were cited as a basic cause of the suspension. Newsprint, already at all-time high prices, was the subject of several congressional and administrative discussions—not only in the interest of American newspapers but of publications throughout the free world which were faced with the imminent prospect of starving for paper. … Political attacks on press freedom continued abroad with passage of a highly restrictive statute in India, while in the United States a partisan effort to "investigate" certain Florida dailies was eventually snuffed out. —W. F. S.

Threats to freedom of the press on the international scene constituted one of the most significant developments in the first quarter of 1951. In Argentina, the Peron government succeeded in closing down La Prensa, famed daily of Buenos Aires and one of the government's most virulent critics, in an action reminiscent of the Nazi appropriation of Frankfurter Zeitung two decades ago. In the United Nations, American and other western delegates criticized the proposed draft convention on freedom of information as a subtle, serious threat to actual freedom by reason of its clauses on security and restraint upon publications tending to offend foreign powers… . On the domestic scene, television occupied the spotlight; color processes were involved in a court battle, the televising of the New York hearings of the Senate crime investigation produced what social scientists believed was an unprecedented impact upon the public, and the FCC plans to distribute almost 2,000 "very high frequency" and "ultra high frequency" franchises made the prospect of local video very much greater. —W. F. S.

The literature concerned with communications in American magazines during the last quarter of 1952 was overwhelmingly dominated by the subject of the relationship of radio and the press to the presidential campaign. While the election itself was resolved definitely in favor of Eisenhower, it became more and more evident that press institutions themselves in the United States may soon face a virtual decision at the bar of public opinion in regard to their ideal role in national life. Marking the main skirmish line for the three months in question was the phrase "one-party press" which bounded from a political speech by defeated-candidate Stevenson in early September into almost every written or spoken discussion of the press since that time. Means of disproving or proving this characterization of U. S. newspapers has been the main topic of discussion at many conventions and conferences of such diversified groups as publishers, editors, union leaders, educators, congressmen, women's clubs and politicians as evidenced by following bibliography entries. Also numerous have been outright attempts at proof and disclaimer by various speakers and writers. Also of note during the quarter were the number of articles by pollsters defining their exact position in regard to pre-election opinion figures. Most managed to be both safe and sorry, since the growing corps of polling critics contributed a great number of articles following the election pointing out ignored evidence on Eisenhower's strength with great statistical accuracy.

The proceedings of the International Press Institute at its London meeting dominate the material in this quarter's foreign publications. The richness of I. P. I.'s contributions of material in the field grows with each meeting and each issue of its publications. The final stages of the press council debate in the United Kingdom produced more readable controversy, and there is an article by Erwin Canham in which the Boston editor says that American editors feel the work of a press council already has been done in this country. There is an article summarizing censorship and interference trends in South America which teachers will find especially valuable. Items dealing with the newsprint shortage do not appear in the bibliography for the first time since the war. A coronation supplement issued by World's Press News, London, on May 1 brings much late material to the teacher interested in the British press. Newspaper World, a British trade publication indexed in this bibliography for many years, ceased publication without previous notice on March 11, a victim of an adverse financial trend which produced other changes in Britain, including cutting back of the Northcliffe interests in the field of provincial weekly newspapers to one establishment.

The summer passed quietly on the international press scene, though the undertone of restlessness and economic perplexity continued in the United Kingdom and Western Europe. The promise of more paper found British daily publishers wondering if they were not bound in the pattern of operations based on scarcity of newsprint so long as the price of paper continued around 55 £ a ton. A rewritten defamation law passed the British House of Commons. L'Echo of Paris continued its valuable series on the experiences of individual newspapers since the Liberation. The editor of World's Press News, Mr. Arthur J. Heighway, whose work had greatly improved the journal and set the pace in London, left his post in a disagreement with the management. I. P. I. Report continued its superb coverage of international journalism.

Presidential political campaigning inevitably made itself felt in the literature of journalism during the third quarter both in the field of pure technique and in the traditional controversy over the balance of newspaper support given to the major parties. The impact of national television coverage of the political conventions inspired many estimates of the effect of this innovation on both the public and on the political parties themselves, the diversity of theories being the outstanding noticeable result. In addition the pure mechanics of television coverage at press conferences and other small gatherings produced a clash with representatives of older news media. This fight gives every evidence of becoming a long-standing problem. As the campaign moved into the final major stage Democratic candidate Stevenson opened an old debate by asserting that the United States "has a one-party press in a two-party country." The inevitable rejoinders followed with the September Editor & Publisher poll indicating that 75% of the daily press which had taken its stand had endorsed Eisenhower. With national attention focused forward toward the final month of campaigning there were few other developments of major importance on the newspaper horizon.

During the period of these notes, British newspapers raised their prices again and the upward trend in circulation figures ended abruptly. Fear of retrenchment haunted Fleet Street and nervousness cropped out in a spontaneous strike in the office of one of the national dailies. Similar uneasiness was reported in Norway and, in France, the plight of the intellectual became worse in a period of rising prices and low wages. French journalists continued restive not only because of the economic situation but because of the uncertainties in governments role. The anti-collaborationist laws which clouded the title to some newspaper properties, and even impaired freedom of press itself, have not been clarified to the satisfaction of journalists. Censorship was reported in Pakistan and Egypt. In Bermuda a newspaper felt the lash of unfriendly government. The Times of London was indicted on charges resulting from publishing an election advertisement. British newspapers have long complained that government newsprint rules favor magazines and The Times took advantage of the rules to establish a weekly newsmagazine. In Paris, études de Presse, scholarly quarterly of the French Press Institute which had been suspended in 1947, was revived under direction of Georges Bourgin. The first three issues presented research material of uniformly good quality.