The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Modern American Journalism.

Examines the tension between the business interests of newspapers and their social responsibility. The early-19th-century press was highly partisan and viewed the reader as voter. Throughout the century the industrial revolution and new definitions of the role of the press in society changed this. With the rise of regional and national markets, the press became the link between business and consumers. By 1900, advertising revenues rather than political patronage supported and shaped the press.