Broadcast, or Broadcasting

Within the very broad context of the development of American journalism, the beginnings of broadcast news have often been regarded as a by-product of technical innovation in the field of radio. The early experimentation in radio tended to concentrate on relaying entertainment content including singers and musicians with an effort to demonstrate the medium’s commercial potential to attract sponsorship. By way of comparison, one often hears that the early newspaper press developed and then expanded in America because of the need to exchange and propagate important ideas, often related to party politics, economics, or some important social movements or agendas. This entry discusses the development of radio broadcasting and the beginnings of broadcast journalism, as well as broadcast journalists. The entry also examines television development ...