Our press will follow a subject day after day, with the aid of
new thoughts and facts, until it is well understood by the reader.
European ideas of journalism cannot be followed blindly by the press of
America. The journalist in Europe writes for a select few. His readers
are usually persons of leisure, if they have not always culture and
taste; and the issue of the morning paper is to them what the appearance
of the quarterly, heavy or racy, is to the cultivated American reader.
But the American journalist, whatever his taste may be, cannot afford to
address himself to so small an audience. He writes literally for the
million; for I take it to be no exaggeration to say that paragraphs and
articles are often read by millions of people in America. This fact is
an important one, as it furnishes a good test of the standard taste and
learning of the people. Our press answers the demand which the people
make upon it. The mass of newspaper readers are not, in a scholastic
sense, well-educated persons. Newspaper writers do not, therefore,
trouble themselves about the colleges with their professors, but they
seek rather to gain the attention and secure the support of the great
body of the people, who know nothing of colleges except through the
newspapers. We have always been permitted to infer the intellectual and
moral character of the audiences of Demosthenes, from the orations of
Demosthenes; and may we not also infer the character of the American
people, from the character of the press that they support? In a single
issue may often be found an editorial article upon some question of
present interest; a sermon, address, or speech, from a leading mind of
the country or the world; letters from various quarters of the globe;
extracts from established literary and scientific journals; original
essays upon political, literary, scientific, and religious subjects; and
items of local or general interest for all classes of readers.
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