Year That Defined American Journalism

<p><em>The Year that Defined American Journalism </em>explores the succession of remarkable and decisive moments in American journalism during 1897 – a year of significant transition that helped redefine the profession and shape its modern contours. This defining year featured a momentous clash of paradigms pitting the activism of William Randolph Hearst's participatory 'journalism of action' against the detached, fact-based antithesis of activist journalism, as represented by Adolph Ochs of the <em>New York Times</em>, and an eccentric experiment in literary journalism pursued by Lincoln Steffens at the <em>New York Commercial-Advertiser</em>. Resolution of the three-sided clash of paradigms would take years and result ultimately in the ascendancy of the <em>Times'</em> counter-activist model, which remains the defining standard for mainstream American journalism. </p><p><em>The Year That Defined American Journalism </em>introduces the year-study methodology to mass communications research and enriches our understanding of a pivotal moment in media history. </p> Introduction; 1897; The Clash of Paradigms; Exceptional Journalism in Journalism's Exceptional Year; Not a Hoax; Conclusion