American Media

So the history of American media is certainly an interesting topic and one I will briefly outline in this post. It first began with the colonial press that was controlled by the British government when Great Britain had control over America. It eventually evolved into a very opinionated press during the Revolutionary era and objectivity was scorned. Next, media was dominated by political parties and politicians. The Penny Press made newspapers accessible to everyone because it was so inexpensive. The business model for the media was established... this belief that eyeballs=advertisers. The Muckrackers and yellow journalism championed causes; attractive to the "little guy." By the late 19th century, several families had developed media empires that made them wealthy, known , and powerful. For example, the LA Times was headed by General Odus until the 1960s.