Between Tradition and Innovation: The Nature of Ante-bellum News in the Courant

Robert Dardenne University of South Florida-St. Petersburg

Abstract:

In the Ante-bellum period newspapers expanded westward and in the Northeast and urban growth and the beginning of the industrial revolution provided a challenging environment for a revolution in the practice of journalism. Changes are often described through the dominant New York press, but change occurred elsewhere at a different pace. The mixture of tradition and innovation resulted in a rich period for practice and study.

The Penny Press is said to have produced a more independent press. In Hartford, papers remained highly partisan throughout the period, attacking political opponents, foreigners, Catholics, "rummies," and others with vigor and sometimes viciousness. Facts became more important in news, although the Courant's editors saw the paper's role to present all kinds of information, including rumor and gossip.

Several major shifts in journalism of the period can be traced in the Courant, including loss of the paper's "correspondence ambiance" (and a corollary loss of wit and excitement), emergence of proximity and timeliness as dominant news characteristics and the inverted pyramid (and the report) as dominant news forms, the use of people as sources of news, speculation about the future, and fact- and event- (rather than opinion- and issue-) oriented content. Fewer traditional stories appeared in the news, as the shift from weekly to daily publication

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