Note:
Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
Therefore, this work is protected by copyright,
restricting your legal rights to reproduce it.
However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now.
Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 42. The Negro Press - 3. Characteristics of the Negro Press
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
Chapter 42. The Negro Press 917
items are given a proportionally larger space than in an ordinary daily
newspaper, and that the news itself is more ^^edited.” This is true, inci-
dentally, of all weeklies, whether Negro or not. In the Negro weekly it is
further motivated by the strong propaganda purpose: the news is presented
mainly to prove the thesis of the Negro protest.
The Negro weekly is ordinarily a “sensational” paper. It is true that
there are degrees: The highly respected and respectable Norfolk Journal
and Guide is more conservative in its appearance, and many of the poor
Negro organs in smaller cities do not reach the technical standard where
sensationalism is possible. But by and large, the statement is true. Sensa-
tional journalism is, however, not an un-American trait. The Negro press
has merely adopted a technique from the white press with which it is in
competition. The most sensational white newspapers are found in the big
cities, and there they appeal to the masses. Fleming observes:
It is not by accident, it should be pointed out, that the Negro papers which tradi-
tionally and consistently feature big, black headlines across Page One and show other
marks of sensationalism are in the cities where Hearst papers arc also published with
their striking headlines making appeal also to the Negro and t)ther mass readers. For
instance, there are Negro papers which have lost circulation because Hearst papers,
and others, could do a better job of carrying features giving ‘‘number” tips to
policy players and bringing the daily reports of the stock market for betting purposes.^
^
The Negro editors and publishers give the same type of defense for the
sensationalistic technique in journalism as do their white colleagues:
. , . they want to reach the largest possible number of readers, in order to use that
following as an instrument for improving and advancing the race.^®
Thus the main factor in the explanation of why the Negro press exag-
gerates the American pattern of sensational journalism is, of course, that
the Negro community, compared with the white world, is so predominantly
lower class. It is true that the lower half of the Negro community probably
does not belong to the regular and direct audience of the Negro press.^®
Even if practically all persons belonging to the upper class were to buy
Negro papers, this could not sustain them. The main reading public must
belong to the middle class and the upper layers of the lower class. Hence,
in the main, an expansion of the circulation, which every paper aims at,
must be obtained in the lower strata of the Negro community. In this
struggle to increase circulation, sensationalism is a rational policy.
Sensationalism also occurs in the Negro press because it is an “additional”
Negro paper. Its excuse for existing is to select those items with a race
angle and to “play them up,” as they are “played down” in the ordinary
white press. In hammering the Negro protest week after week, the press
is constantly in danger of becoming abstract and tedious. It must, therefore,
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
