Antiwar post: Civil War Propaganda and New England by George Winston Smith

antiwar post: Civil War Propaganda and New England by George Winston Smith 

 

According to George Winston Smith, Northern civilizations made the American civil war their own. It was very critical politicians and general a like, were quivering between hopes of victory and terrifying pre- directions of the future, calling for repair against uncorrected wrongs, people of the North wrote letters to the press, also sent petitions to congress, and staged mass meetings and gathered in  private groups to analyze almost every policy that was related to conflict. Because of an ineffective and mostly periodic censorship, the military was common knowledge. However, to a great extent the direction of public opinion became the function of  non- governmental agencies .

 

With american tendencies for joining together in organizations, it became very clear that organizations such as clubs, leagues, and societies especially for the” enlightenment”, for fellow citizens through the “diffusion”, of “correct” information and in Boston it was a successful merchant in China trade and railroad capitalist, John Murray Forbes who led such a movement. During the summer of 1862 Forbes began to select important editorials from the daily editors such as the New York Evening post and the Boston Advertiser which led to stalwarts among the antislavery press. Businessmen and civil leaders were already aware of the issues. The masses were instructed that the war was a struggle between aristocracy and popular government. During the fourth week in January, 1863, Forbes drew up a “ rough sketch of a club for republishing”and sent it to his friend Samual J Ward. 

 

James B Thayer, a young Boston lawyer of literary bent, who was nearly ten years away from his profession in law school. However,although Loweel  took no direct part in the society, he maintained close friendship with Norton, who later became the editor of this publication. Thayer and his sister Sara worked as a clerk, and were soon installed in an office, which was a general clearing house for correspondence and the scene for editorial work for Norton, carefully reading layers of news papers, clippings, attaching editorial headings, even writing dozens of leading articles himself. However voluntary subscriptions did not equal the amount in which Forbes needed to carry out other far reaching propaganda plans but there was an appreciation of the need for influencing opinion among a sufficient number of Boston businessmen. However the executive committee  in addition to Forbes, Norton and Thayer, also consisted of Reverend Edward Everette Hale, a unitarian clergyman, who had tried to win Kansas for “free labor “ in the 1850’s.  

 

         However,  Boston merchants Henry B. Rogers and William Endicott Jr, also served on the committee ( the latter also as Treasurer), and was elected president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Forbes , the New England loyal publication society at first distributed printed slips that were sent to newspapers. However, within a short amount of time it was publishing its own broadsides, and eventually some of them were paper size printed on one side good  rag- content “white” paper with a banner on top, carrying the society’s name.  

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The AP (Associated Press)

 

         The Associated Press is a non profit newsgathering cooperative whose content is seen by half of the world’s population daily. The AP provides news and graphics by wire to over 1,700 member newspapers and 6,000 member television and radio stations in the United states.

 

         According to https://www.encyclopedia.com,  the Associated Press was first established in 1848. Six of the most important daily newspapers in  New York City decided to fund their resources in order to cut costs. Representatives of the Journal of Commerce, the New York Sun, the Herald, the Counter, the Enquire, the Txpress, and the New York Tribune, were able to put aside their competitive differences and the Associated Press of New York was born.

 

In the beginning the purpose of the organization was strictly for financial reasons. By distributing all news that arrived by the telegraph wire and dividing the expenses evenly. Each member was given the dangers of losing information to a higher bidder. By 1850, the group had its first paying customers, the Philadelphia public Ledger and Baltimore sun, were given access to AP dispatchers for a fee without becoming actual members. However over the next several years, the number of newspapers outside of New York grew, and the AP was able to recover half of its expenses through its sale of news. In 1862, the Western Associated Press (WAP), was created by a group of Midwestern daily newspapers. As WAP gained strength, friction developed between them and their New York origin. The Western papers felt that they were being overcharged for European news, which by the 1860s was flowing steadily to the United States by underwater telegraph cable. However, in 1882, the first serious rival emerged, when  the United Press (UP), led by William M. Laffan of the New York Sun, was formed. From 1925 to 1945, the AP grew into an enormous international news machine under Kent Cooper. According to  https://www.encyclopedia.com, Cooper saw countless ways to improve the organization’s methods of collecting and distributing information. One of his most important moves was his ongoing battle to free the AP from its obligations to import European news.Cooper saw that news from European agencies was often slanted in favor of their home governments. He believed that the only way for the AP to receive accurate accounts of events abroad was to use its own reporters.The AP opened bureaus in Great Britain, France, and Germany in 1929, and until 1934, the Ap completely broke away from those confining arrangements. During the 1970’s technological progress continued to improve AP services. One of its breakthroughs during this period was the Laserphoto news picture system, developed jointly with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Laserphoto system allowed the AP to transmit photographs of a much higher quality than was previously possible to both print and broadcast members. Between 1995 and 1999 further growth and change developed.According to  https://www.encyclopedia.com, In 1995 came the introduction of AP AdSEND, a digital advertising delivery service. For a small per-use fee, advertisers could upload copy and images into an AP database, which could then be downloaded by newspapers and other users.The system saved both time and money for advertisers, and enabled wider and easier distribution of advertising messages.

In 1998 AP celebrated its 150th anniversary. The company's video service was expanded during the year with the purchase of the Worldwide Television News agency from ABC. APTV was subsequently renamed APTN, or Associated Press Television News.