Journalism during the ACW

[Reconstructed Rebel]

This was an interesting quote regarding the method employed by this reporter:

He once met Mr. Page on a railway train and said to him : " We are greatly pleased with your work ; you are quick and graphic, and give us the news early, and we must have it early ; but, Mr. Page, you are the most expensive young man the ' Tribune ' has ever employed." To this Mr. Page replied : "Early news is expensive news, Mr. Greeley ; if I have the watermelons and whiskey ready when the officers come along from the fight, I get the news without asking questions."

Watermelon and whiskey - who knew?

Source: page v

Letters of a war correspondent .. : Page, Charles A : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

26

archive.org

 

[huskerblitz]

I really shouldn't say Shanks was "embedded". Rather, he was an editor that enlisted and sent back letters to be published in the newspaper. The Courier-Journal didn't place him there, he enlisted on his own.

Interesting tidbit...him and a couple of others took over an abandon newspaper office in Plaquemine, Louisiana in 1864 and published their very own newspaper during the time they were stationed there. The called it the Picket Post. Sadly, I do not believe that any copies remain today. But they did give permission for the Courier-Journal to reprint a couple of articles.

 

[huskerblitz]

Double Post......site isn't letting me post a screenshot.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

I really shouldn't say Shanks was "embedded". Rather, he was an editor that enlisted and sent back letters to be published in the newspaper. The Courier-Journal didn't place him there, he enlisted on his own.

Sounds like he would have actually been working for The Louisville Journal?

The Courier-Journal only came into being in 1868 when two Louisville papers merged. The Louisville Journal was against slavery while The Courier was pro-Confederate.

 

[USS ALASKA]

International Journal of Communication 17(2023), 882–900
1932–8036/20230005

"We Have No Newspapers . . . Dull! Dull!": Mass Media Dependency During the American Civil War
BETTY HOUCHIN WINFIELD
University of Missouri, USA
CHAD PAINTER
University of Dayton, USA

This study ties contemporary media dependency theory with the historical reliance on mass media during the American Civil War. Researchers used a thematic textual analysis of references to newspapers and magazines in personal correspondence found in 32 published collections of approximately 1,000 soldiers' letters. Consistent with media dependency research, soldiers needed media information for understanding of self in the horrific world they were living in; for orientation of actions in the battles (or anticipated behavior for battles expected); and for entertainment relief as escapism. Researchers found four additional media dependency components: a validation of the experience; reliance for a better explanation than what an individual correspondent could express; a check on accuracy about the coverage due to what the soldier witnessed or thought; and an emotional longing for local news about family and friends.

https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/download/19733/4029

Please use above link.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[huskerblitz]

Sounds like he would have actually been working for The Louisville Journal?

The Courier-Journal only came into being in 1868 when two Louisville papers merged. The Louisville Journal was against slavery while The Courier was pro-Confederate.

My bad. My research spans from pre-Civil War up to the 1900s so I sometimes get screwed up on the name changes.

Louisville Weekly Journal was what I was referring to. There is also reference in the Louisville Daily Journal. Some rival papers in Frankfort (Commonwealth) also reprinted some info on the Picket Post that upset Shanks.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Media as Weaponry: How Civil War Media Shaped Opinion and Morale
Matthew Spears
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
MASTER OF LIBERAL STUDIES
May 2016

While there are numerous studies on the impact the Civil War had on a burgeoning media, my research examines the flip-side of that. Instead, I want to investigate how media affected the Civil War's outcome. Deconstructing nineteenth-century media in this way will help convey its role as a change agent, and not merely a change recipient. By examining three battles in particular—Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg—and analyzing how they were covered throughout America by the Northern, Southern, and Western media, I hope to shed light on the importance of media usage during the Civil War. I will argue that thanks to the clever and sometimes manipulative use of media, both the North and South used media to spin information. However, the North would prove to be more effective, and ultimately more likely to win the war, thanks in part to their more adept ability to spin information, their greater number of resources, and the government's willingness to control and censor communications. In other words, the sheer volume of Northern media gave it an inherently distinct advantage relative to the South.

https://conservancy.umn.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/7fe2d4a2-c822-41b4-9f8e-6326f15f4f3c/content

Please use above link.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

This one is about the reporters and their experiences: The Bohemian Brigade by Louis M. Starr,

Journal Article
Reporting for Duty: The Bohemian Brigade, the Civil War, and the Social Construction of the Reporter
Andie Tucher
Book History
Vol. 9 (2006), pp. 131-157
The Johns Hopkins University Press

https://www.jstor.org/stable/30227387

Full article at above link on JSTOR with Google sign-in (In the upper right-hand corner of the linked page, there is a 'Log in' button. If you have a Gmail account, you have a Google sign-in and this will allow for free reading of 100 articles a month).

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

University at Albany
State University of New York
Scholars Archive
History Honors Program
5-2023

Civil War Journalism: Two Rough Drafts of One History
Brianna Collora
University at Albany, State University of New York

The University at Albany community has made this article openly available. Part of the Journalism Studies Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons, and the United States History Commons. This Undergraduate Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the History at Scholars Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Honors Program by an authorized administrator of Scholars Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Abstract
This paper addresses journalism in the Civil War by analyzing both Northern and Southern reporting. The severity of censorship changed throughout the duration of the war, with it less harsh in the Union by the end. Southern officials did not censor as much, both because their resources were scarcer, and their officials were more opposed to the use of censorship. While past historians have argued that the decrease in Northern censorship is because the Union began to have the upper hand in the war, I argue that the decrease in Union censorship was not only because the Union was now winning, but likely an early effort to begin the process of reconciling with an anti-censorship South. The goal early in the war for the North was to preserve the Union. Towards the end, officials realized this goal was now attainable. Similar acts were also performed by Union officials; most famously Grant's refusal to take Lee's sword and his orders to his men not to celebrate and cheer for the defeat of the Confederates, who were now their own countrymen once again. The paper uses secondary sources on Civil War journalism as well as newspaper articles from the North and South to discuss the topic through three events that cover the beginning, middle, and end of the war.

https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=history_honors

Cheers,
USS ALASKA