Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009

The writer also uses 'their'.

That's rather at odds with my impression.

In the early part of the radio era, print organzations were quite
hostile to radio, and they used their influence with public officials
to exclude radio from official recognition.  They were not allowed in
news conferences; could not join press clubs, newsgathering
collectives, correspondents' associations; and did not get briefings
and tips from their elected officials.  The First Amendment's
guarantee of "freedom of the press" waa not yet established as
applying to radio, and in fact, FCC regulations restricted licensed
stations to only two newscasts a day.  Newspapers were worried, of
course, that if the news were available immediately, for free, from
radio, then no one would pay for their report on it the next day.

For a while, this worked, but radio clealy was not going away, and
there were some strong personalities and businessmen involved in radio
-- such as local department-store owners -- who could push hard on
local politicians to get access.  Eventually, newspapers and radio
settled into a more cooperative frame, in which radio stations formed
alliances with their local papers, and other papers started or
purchased their on radio stations.  They no longer had an incentive to
exclude radio from press conferences and press organizations.

In 1939, the FCC's "Mayflower Broadcasting" decision prohibited
stations from taking editorial positions.

Then along came World War II, and the dissemination of official "war
information" was considered so important that radio stations were
given special treatment.  Important stations' transmitter sites were
given 24-hour military protection, to guard against sabotage by the
enemy.  Some stations which served populations seen as important by
the government, such as farmers, were given special access to
materials and electronics to upgrade their facilities and thereby
expand their reach.  They were allowed, of course, to broadcast as
much propaganda as they wished.

In the late 1940s, the FCC enacted the "Fairness Doctrine", which
allowed editorializing once again, so long as those holding an
opposing view were afforded a "reasonable opportunity" to respond.
Television came onto the scene, but unlike with the beginning of
commercial radio, the biggest players in television were also the
biggest players in radio; they would not do to themselves what
newspapers had done to them twenty years earlier.

There was still at this time still competition between print and
broadcast, and I suspect you could easily find references that
restrict the meaning of "the press" to print alone.  But if we
fast-forward another thirty years, "the press" clearly refers to all
news-gatherers and -disseminators, not just print.  I can't tell from
its published history when the National Press Club opened its doors to
radio and television journalists (although they do say that they
finally admitted women in 1971); today they are one of the biggest
producers of news audio and video in Washington.

These days, journalists appear to distinguish between "the press",
meaning news reporters and producers, and "the media", meaning the
means of dissemination which include news content, but in many cases
are primarily distributors of something else such as entertainment or
political vitriol.  Rush Limbaugh and Rachel Maddow are members of
"the media" but not "the press".  But this is not a universal
distinction, and I'm not at all sure that it means anything to the
great body of the public.

-GAWollman

Originally "it" was called the "news media" or the "mass media", and
comprised, composed, consisted of newspapers, magazines, radio, television
etc.

I have no objection to referring to newspapers, magazines, radio and
television collectively as "they", but find the implication that "they is"
jarring.

There's nothing either vague or "pseudo-tech" about "fare media".
It's just nerdview: the jargon of the business escaping into a public
place where most readers will be unfamiliar with it.

-GAWollman

Tickets are something different?

Somehow "Remove sticker to validate pass"  sounds a lot better.

Fare media should be more than one medium as far as I can see.

John Kane Kingston  ON Canada.