Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: When and where was the world's first newspaper published? And the first American newspaper? And there was no such thing as journalism until the 1600's? What were early newspapers like? Who started them and why? And early newspapers in the American colonies? What does the First Amendment mean? How is the US tradition of the free press different from traditions in other democracies? How could the American founding fathers have approved the First Amendment and also supported federal subsidies for newspapers and also passed the Sedition Act of 1798 that made criticizing the federal government a crime? Why were European visitors to the United States in the nineteenth century so often astonished[&​#x2014;]and sometimes appalled[&​#x2014;]by the American press?.

The business of journalism has an extensive, storied, and often romanticized history. This addition to the What Everyone Needs to Know® series looks at the past, present and future of journalism, considering how the development of the industry has shaped the present and how we can expect the future to roll out.