Monday, October 10, 2011
Allen Neuharth
Allen Neuharth was born on March 22, 1924 in Eureka, South Dakota. He was a reporter for a small newspaper comapany in his hometown. His career was on the fast track because he became the Gannett Company president by 1970. Neuharth created USA Today when he was still with the Gannett company. USA Today is considered to be one of the most widely read newspapers in the United States. Neuharth is the author of seven books including his autobiography: Confessions of an S.O.B. Neuharth retired in 1989, and he is now the chairman of one of the nation's largest private charitable foundations, Freedom Forum.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch was born on March 11, 1931in Melbourne, Australia. He went to study at Worcestor College Oxford and he returned back to Australia when his father died, in 1954, to receive his inheritance. He inherited The Sunday Mail and The News from his late father. When he inherited these, he focused on scandals and sex. In 1969, Murdoch acquired The News of the World of London, and in 1970 he acquired The Sun. With these news outlets, Murdoch focused mainly on sex, scandals, crime, and human-interest stories. With these types of stories, Murdoch gained quick success. Over the years, Murdoch gained more news outlets, such as The San Antonio News (later the Express News), The Star (sold in 1980s) , New York Post (sold in 1980s but repurchased in1982) , The Boston Herald American ( sold in 1994), Tv Guide, and the Australian. During the 1980s and 90s, Murdoch purchased several independent American television stations and Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation which he merged to create Fox, Inc., which is one of the most successful television stations today. To recover from the debt that had built up during the years of purchasing these media outlets, Murdoch sold New York, Seventeen, Daily racing form, and other magazines. In 2005, Murdoch purchased Intermix Media which owned Myspace. And in 2007, it was announced that Murdoch would purchase the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company for $5 billion.
Major newspapers & news events
Major news events
- 1980
Iran–Iraq War begins.
John Lennon shot dead in New York. - 1983
US announces development of ‘Star Wars’ defence system. - 1987
‘ Black Monday’ stock market crash affects companies around the world. - 1988
Soviet Union begins to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
Iran–Iraq war ends. - 1993
World Trade Center in New York bombed by terrorists. - 1998
Peace negotiations in Northern Ireland; Good Friday Agreement signed.
India and Pakistan test nuclear weapons.
Social, economic, and technological changes
Social & Economic Changes
One major social change during the 1980's & 1990's was the way the public viewed the media. Often, newspapers made it difficult for the audience to evaluate whether news stories were true or distorted, and whether important information has been left out. Exact truth and relevance were not as important to the media than as they are now.
- Due to the increasing demand for daily news coverage, journalists worked under a tight time schedule to get everything done and had little time to verify their stories.
- As time went on, people began to realize that while they enjoyed hearing and seeing the newest gossip about celebrities, political figures, etc, they also began to feel personally victimized (profanity) and would deny requests to be interviewed; they did not want negative information about them to be broadcasted.
Technological Changes
- During the 1980's and 1990's, journalists were able to deliver news faster and further than before which therefore made more money since technology made it very convenient.
- Cell phones - reporters were able to relay news faster so that events would appear on the newspaper the day after it occurred.
- Cable and satellite broadcasting (EX: Cable News Network - CNN) made broadcasting signals stronger. Instead of certain towns getting just local news, there were stations that allowed for the news to reach most of the country. This decreased the separation of media and provided the US with more universal way of transfering and broadcasting information.
- Cable and satellite broadcasting also made it easier for reporters to do on scene, live reporting.
- Higher quality picture/video - clips of upcoming movies were able to play nationally on television to urge the news listeners to go out and see the movies. From these advertisements, the media became more successful.
- They were now able to put sporting events on television. The Olympic games was first put on TV in 1984.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Ted Turner
Ted Turner, born as Robert Edward Turner III, was born on November 19, 1938 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Turner attended but did not graduate Brown University. At her age of 25, Turner took over the family business, a billboard advertising company, after his father's death in 1963. In the 1970s he bought UHF Television station and in only 3 years, he turned it into a profitable television station. Turner created CNN (Cable News Network) in 1980, and TNT (Turner Network Television) in 1988. In 1991, Turner married Jane Fonda. In 1992, Turner created Cartoon Network. In 1993, Turner purchased New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment. In 1996, Time warner purchased Turner Broadcastin System for 7.5 billion dollars. Turner, became vice-chairman of Time Warner as an agreement. When Time Warner merged with AOL, Turner became vice-chairman and senior advisor to AOL Time Warner. In 2003, Turner resigned from that position. In 2006, Turner announced that he will not be going for a reelection on the Time Warner board of directors. In 2008, Turner released his autobiography, Call Me Ted.
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