The Press and Public Opinion

Abstract

THE "able editor" is the real king in our day and generation. Carlyle made this observation in his poetic and picturesque history of the French Revolution, and if it was true then, how much more profoundly and vitally true it is today! Sociologists have not failed to recognize the tremendous influence and importance of the newspaper as an organ of public opinion, and some of them have gone farther and adverted to the press as the director and molder of such opinion. In spite of certain superficial inductions, the power of the press has never been so great, so decisive, so irresistible as it is now. Hide-bound and bigoted partisan newspapers have doubtless suffered considerably during the past decade, owing to the growth of political independence and the decadence of old-fashioned partisanship, which was based on tradition and habit, rather than on personal conviction and critical thought. But even the intolerant and dogmatic party organ is by no means moribund, while the press as a whole has certainly rather gained than lost authority and influence. The newspapers make and mar political fortunes. They " create" great men out of next to nothing and destroy the reputations of men truly fit for leadership. They decide questions of war and peace. They carry elections. They overawe and coerce politicians, rulers, and courts. When they are virtually unanimous nothing can withstand them. So relatively new and so formidable a sociological factor deserves to be carefully studied. Many problems, ethical, political, and social, are presented by the newspaper phenomenon, and a few of them are to be touched upon in this paper. It is necessary to begin with some familiar and obvious propositions. The primary and essential function of a newspaper is, of course, the publication of a tolerably complete record of the world's activities, sensations, and happenings. If it is useful to know "how the other half lives," it is evidently of far higher utility to know how humanity outside of one's own country lives