Abstract
A REVIEW with this title by Hillier Krieghbaum has been published in the Kansas State College Bulletin (25, No. 5, Aug. 15, 1941; pp. 1-73) ; it is the sixteenth in a series of surveys of specialized branches of journalism. The beginnings of newspaper science reporting are traced: there was little interest among the early colonists, but as communities stabilized the outlook of editors grew. Benjamin Franklin could write with authority on science, but more usually items were reprints or grossly misinformed, and coverage was spasmodic. In the 1830's there occurred the rise of the penny Press and stunts and hoaxes became common ; but editors were sceptical about the Atlantic cable, and Darwin's theory of evolution was barely mentioned. Again, in 1903, very few newspapers noted the first flight of the Wright Brothers. The section of the American Press led by Hearst and Pulitzer began, at the turn of the century, to search more widely for news sensations, but a fuller appreciation of science as news had to come through the War of 1914-18. E. W. Scripps was a pioneer in encouraging specialist writers for the Press, and it was his New York Times that was alone in publishing in 1919 an accurate story on the implications of the confirmation of Einstein's theory of relativity. In 1922 several writers attended the annual meeting of the American Association and one of them received a Pulitzer Prize for his work.
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American Newspaper Reporting of Science News. Nature 150, 174 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150174b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150174b0