THE PRESS IN THE CIVIL WAR

Even the nature of journalism changed in the Civil War period. Before the war, most American newspapers were political and personal, meaning they touted the political principles of the owner or editor. That had begun to change in the 1830s as larger, more metropolitan dailies pivoted to a news formula that emphasized news values such as timeliness, magnitude, and human interest rather than political commentary. Those changes, however, had not filtered down to smaller cities and towns in any large degree. The Civil War changed that, and with changing news values, other aspects of the news industry changed as well. Women took on more varied roles at newspapers and magazines to supply necessary labor as men marched off to war. Newspapers were shut down as their editors’ loyalties were questioned. These issues and others are the topic of this chapter.