Exercise: Looking at broadsides

To look at broadsides, a precursor to modern news media, we will use textual analysis. Textual analysis is a method that is reflected in its name: it demands the researcher (in this case, you) examine a text (which may be many cultural forms). Today we will analyze early American broadsides.

While many fields that employ textual analysis look for meanings that may exist beneath the surface, our purpose is simply to understand what is being communicated, by whom, for what purpose and using what methods of writing. Each student is required to peruse several broadsides at the Library of Congress website and answer the questions appearing below. We will discuss each example in class.

After visiting the site, select "Genre" > "Broadsides" and find an interesting example from before 1900. Please note the item number so we can look at it in class -- this appears above the broadside in its webpage. Then answer the following:

1. What is the subject of the broadside?
• Does it discuss an issue of the period?
• Political, legal, crime-related, etc.
2. Who is the author? (This may not be published)
3. What is its format?
• Narrative
• Music/poetry
• Announcement
• Advertisement
• Propaganda
4. How would you describe the writing?
   • Does it use contemporary language or a more antiquated technique?
   • Consider word use, punctuation, phrasings, spellings, general narration
5. What's the format?
• Does it employ illustrations, unusual fonts?
6. Is it effective?
   • If you were to encounter this broadside in a era that predated electronic communication, would it be notable, worth reading, interesting?

jour 322

• Assistant Professor Matthew Blake
• Office: Tehama 339
• Office hours: M 10-11 & 4-5;
  T 4-5; Th 11-12
  Virtual office hours: T & Th 5-6.
• (530) 898-3608
• mdblake@csuchico.edu

weekly schedule

1. Online: Ancient communications
   In class: Course introduction
   Readings: Schudson, 17-30; Gutenberg
   
2. Online: Early Public communications
   In class: Franklin and broadsides
   Readings: Schudson, 30-43.
   
3. Online: Colonial Presses
   In class: Mark Twain and exercise
   Readings: Twain 1867 & 1879
4. Online: Colonial and Revolutionary Presses
   In class: Material review
   Readings: Mencken on democracy
5. Online: Party press
   In class: Exam one
   Readings: Pulitzer-winning photo histories
6. Online: Antebellum Press
   In class: Watergate
   Readings: Brady's war photography
7. Online: Penny Press
   In class: All the President's Men
   Readings: Carey & Sensational examples
8. Online: The telegraph
   In class: Exercise two and supplements
   Readings: Civil Rights & 1960s news
   
9. Spring Break
   
10. Online: Material review
    In class: Red scares and Good Night
    Readings: Blake on Guthrie
11. Online: Yellow journalism
    In class: Exam two
    Readings: WWI on the Wire
12. Online: Muckraking, Part one (quiz 4/16)
    In class: Citizen Kane
    Readings: "The Shame of Minneapolis"
13. Online: Muckraking, Part two (quiz 4/23)
    In class: Underground journalism
    Readings: "The Great American Fraud"
14. Online: Origins of PR
    In class: Student presentations
    Readings: Campaign PR, Thompson
15. In class: Student presentations
    
16. In class: Student presentations
    Online: Material review
17. Final exam

Matthew Blake    Department of Journalism    CSU-Chico   
mdblake@csuchico.edu    (530) 898-3608