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Elsie Robinson

'Listen, World!': The Story of America's Most-Read Woman, Elsie Robinson

She risked everything to escape a life of poverty and become one of the nation's most read columnists, while advocating for the advancement of women.
Members of Jayland Walker's family stand beside a sign in tribute to him.
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Jayland Walker’s Killing Didn’t Spur Expected Protests. Here’s Why.

An effective media strategy has often been crucial to rallying the public behind Black victims of fatal violence.
A bronze statue of Civil War soldiers on horseback, in front of the U.S. Capitol building.

How Twitter Explains the Civil War (and Vice Versa)

The proliferation of antebellum print is analogous to our own tectonic shifts in how people communicate and what they communicate about.
Artistic rendering of a sheet of newspaper with people crossed out, flowing above people working menial jobs whose heads are also crossed out, working next to signs that read "Sorry."

On Atonement

News outlets have apologized for past racism. That should only be the start.
original

How America Thought About Refugees 70 Years Ago

And other gleanings from the 1949 run of the Saturday Evening Post.

Generations of Village Voice Writers Reflect on the End of Print

The end of an era.
Joseph Dennie.

Was the Federalist Press Staid and Apolitical?

Quite the contrary. They used rhetoric to build a partisan community, and realized that parties needed to create and market identities, not simply agendas.
The 1917 Silent Parade march in New York City protesting antiblack violence.

The Social-gospel Roots of Environmentalism

America's environmental movement has always been moralistic, which has made it bad at weighing tradeoffs. This accounts for its successes and also its failures.
A collection of ninteenth-century manuscripts on top of a library table.

Fighting Words: The Pamphlets of a Democratic Revolution

To judge from the Concord collection, the public forum of antebellum America was no model of democratic deliberation.
Clare Boothe Luce and Henry Luce in New York City, 1954

A Better Journalism?

‘Time’ magazine and the unraveling of the American consensus.
Four men gather around a horse drawn cart carrying newspapers from Philadelphia, New York and Maryland.

There’s Already a Solution to the Crisis of Local News. Just Ask This Founding Father.

As modern lawmakers consider various means of public assistance for local news, they can learn from the founders’ approach to supporting journals and gazettes.
The old New York Times building in 2006.

The New York Times is Repeating One of Its Most Notorious Mistakes

The paper’s anti-trans coverage parallels its failings over gay rights and AIDS. But the Times appears determined not to learn from its own history.
Collage image of the book "Public Opinion," featuring a man reading a newspaper.

"Public Opinion" at 100

Walter Lippmann’s seminal work identified a fundamental problem for modern democratic society that remains as pressing—and intractable—as ever.
Still from The Wire (HBO): two detectives, McNulty and Bunk.

20 Years Later, "The Wire" Is Still a Cutting Critique of American Capitalism

The Wire — both stylish and smart, follows unforgettable characters woven into a striking portrait of the depredations of capitalism in one US city.
Visitors browse newspaper front pages from the day after the 9/11 terror attacks at the Newseum in Washington, D,C., in 2016. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

When History Is Lost in the Ether

Digital archiving is shoddy and incomplete, and it will hamper the ability of future generations to understand the current era.
Lithograph of men and women drinking and dancing at an American Dance House.

The Influences of the Underworld: Nineteenth-Century Brothel Guides, Cards, and City Directories

Brothel guides tended to be small, making them easy to conceal. They also mimicked other publications to make it easier to hide the guides’ true purpose.
Newspaper and a black background and the words "Printing Hate"

Printing Hate

How white-owned newspapers incited racial terror in America.
Abstract painting titled 'Constellation' by Helen Gerardia

A New Planet in the System

Early Americans conscripted the universe into their nation-building project.
Graphic illustration of a tilted white column with a pointed white top, resembling a race, against a red background. The words: "Media Monuments and Hooded Headlines" are printed within the triangular top.

American Journalism’s Role in Promoting Racist Terror

History must be acknowledged before justice can be done.
Photograph of a newsstand selling magazines

What Are Magazines Good For?

The story of America can be told through the story of its periodicals.
An old black and white photo at a dinner event

The History of American Newspapers is More Searchable Than Ever

A stroll through the archives of Editor & Publisher shows an industry with moments of glory and shame — and evidence that not all of today's problems are new.
A group of White KC Star reporters sitting at desks with paper

The Truth in Black and White: An Apology From the Kansas City Star

Today we are telling the story of a powerful local business that has done wrong.
A newsboy holding a bag of papers.

Popular Journalism’s Day in ‘The Sun’

The penny press of the nineteenth century was a revolution in newspapers—and is a salutary reminder of lost ties between reporters and readers.

A Loyalist and His Newspaper in Revolutionary New York

The story of James Rivington, the publisher who got on the wrong side of the Sons of Liberty.

How Media was Social in the 1790s

What would the French Revolution have looked like on Twitter?
Dutch paintings of man writing letter and woman reading letter.

How Personal Letters Built the Possibility of a Modern Public

The first newspapers contained not high-minded journalism, but hundreds of readers’ letters exchanging news with one another.

‘An Essential Force in American History,’ Chicago Defender to Stop Print Publication

The storied African American newspaper will switch to a digital-only platform starting July 11.

Walt Whitman’s Brooklyn

A virtual tour from the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Does Journalism Have a Future?

In an era of social media and fake news, journalists who have survived the print plunge have new foes to face.

The Little Mayors of the Lower East Side

Getting to know the New York City street mayors of the turn of the century.

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