NEWSPAPER COMPARISON BETWEEN 1915 & 1990

Newspapers are a common medium of getting information in the world. Newspapers have also existed for a long period of time, and hence, they can be used to look at information about events that occurred in the past. Furthermore, the content of newspapers is also able to tell about the society that existed during the time the newspaper was published. This is because the newspaper only publishes the kind of information that the public is interested in, or would be inclined to read since it may catch their curiosity. In other words, a newspaper can describe the social norms, values and the entire culture of the society itself as well as the predicted behaviors of the individuals that existed within the particular society. This paper will discuss the differences and similarities that exist between the Vestkusten newspaper from 1990 and the same company’s newspaper from 1915 in order to examine the society that existed in 1990 and in 1915, and how they were different and similar to one another as well.

The 1915 newspaper edition of Vestkusten has a very dull appearance. The entire newspaper looks very raw from the form of paper that was chosen to print the text on. Furthermore, the newspaper seems to be very ordinarily fashioned and has allowed too much information to be cramped up on each page (Vestkusten 1915). In a way, it looks like the newspaper has far too much to publish and a very few pages to accomplish hat very same task. Furthermore, the same edition also aims to show how complicated the society back then would have been in regard to the society that exists currently. For example, I cannot even begin to understand as to how people could read the 1915 edition without being infuriated at how it did not justify to their needs of reading capacity. A person would have to literally squint at the newspaper to read at the words, and this would indeed not be a suitable reading situation for them. However, with the amount of news being put in the paper back then, it can be understood as to how popular the newspaper may have been, and hence it could be realized as to how big of a general readership they may have had. On the other hand, the newspaper edition of Vestkusten from 1990 has a very attractive look. The entire paper seems to be thrilled at the prospect of allowing more and more organization to be made in terms of the content that is published for the readers. The font texture is also far better when compared to the 1915 edition and can certainly be compared to the organization of most newspapers that are published today. The newspaper also uses more space to be left in between the content so as to give a more sophisticated look to the readership (Vestkusten 1990). In this manner, it can also be understood as to how the entire paper aims to demonstrate the needs of a very content and relaxed society. The readership must have changed over time since the newspaper’s way of publishing the news has also changed tremendously. This also shows how the society has become more associated to displaying their needs to the newspaper, as without their demands the newspaper would have never changed their method of organization and publishing in the news that they talk about with their readership.

The newspaper edition of Vestkusten in 1915 has no images at all. This is a very astonishing aspect to look at since images are very important and were available back in the 1910s for people to actually use. There are only piles and piles of text in the newspaper filled with different articles and a few advertisements here and there. However, there is just no sign of any image that could be associated with a particular article or headline, or even an advertisement of the newspaper (Vestkusten 1915). It goes to show that images were not of much important to the readership of the newspaper back in 1915. It can also mean that the readership was more interested in understanding what was going around in the world and in the country rather than looking at pictures to associate meaning with the text. Furthermore, this also shows how the American community was not too friendly with using visual cues along with text. However, in the 1990 edition of Vestkusten newspapers, there seems to be an extensive use of images throughout the entire newspaper edition. Like predicted, the images are always present to associate visual cues with the text, such as a graph on the first page of the edition that associates to the story of an article that is written right beside it while another image is present on the first page to possibly attract the readers to the newspaper as well as to promote the story that is associated with the article (Vestkusten 1990). This could very well describe as to how the society of America was back in 1990 and how it is different to the American society of 1915. Seeing that the 1915 had no images at all while the 1990 edition has a lot of images, it can safely be said that the American society of 1990 was more attracted to images probably because it allowed the readership to have more ease in communicating with what was written on the newspaper and with understanding what the content was trying to explain to the readership of the newspaper. Images were also larger in size in comparison to the articles which also goes on to show how larger pictures would gather more readerships for the newspaper.

The advertisements in the Vestkusten edition of 1915 were kept to a minimal. This is largely evident since in the 1915 edition, no advertisements are present in the main page as well as in the following page (Vestkusten 1915). Advertisements first pop up on the third page of the newspaper, which goes on to show how there was very little focus on the way advertisements were published and on their gathering of readership and income for the newspaper. This also went on to show how the society at the time was not highly interested in advertisements and was more devoted to reading the news that was printed in the newspaper to update them. However, advertisements in the 1990 edition of Vestkusten are printed on each page and in multiple locations on some pages (Vestkusten 1990). Moreover, images are also associated with advertisements and more often than not, advertisements are seen to take more printing space on the page than the written content and article. Hence, it can be deduced from such extensive use of advertisements in the 1990 edition that the American society of 1990 was more attracted towards purchases and consumerism, and therefore, they were highly motivated to read advertisements in the newspaper rather than just read news throughout the newspaper. Furthermore, advertisements in the 1915 were not that apparent and did not seem to be published to attract the attention of readers. In 1990, advertisements were displayed with the intent to get the reader’s attention. Sometimes, the advertisements take more space on the page than the articles and other content itself.

The content in the 1990 edition of Vestkusten was heavily reliant on local events and domestic news. As it can be observed from looking at the 1990 edition, car sales and domestic events like a Langlet exhibition are the types of news that are more prominent in the article. The main news that is the first headline on the newspaper talks about the publishing of the national encyclopedia, which may not seem as a huge deal in today’s news, but certainly seems to be the case in 1990. Furthermore, the content is also directed towards consumerism and traveling trips. This goes on to show that even the news and article content of the 1990 edition are reliant on consumerism and similar factors since everything that is published in the newspaper edition entails to the appeal of consumerism and definitely tries to gain the attention of the readers in the manner that they actually invest in the advertisements that they see. In this manner, it also becomes possible to understand why so many advertisements are printed in the 1990 edition since they may have exploited the benefits of extra income that comes through the use of advertisements in newspapers. This also goes to show how changed the society of America has become from what it used to be in 1915 in terms of business prospects. However, in the 1915 edition of Vestkusten, the content was based on domestic news and norms as well. This goes on to show how there was a huge similarity in the way the news was published in regard to the events that were carried out. Even though the 1915 edition has very little advertisements, the appeal of domestic news and local events is still pertinent which shows that the faith in news and social life have been parallel to one another and still had not changed after 75 years had gone by.

The content in the 1990 edition of Vestkusten is based in the English language which sort of appeals to the nature of the American society since the newspaper does operate in a nation that has English as one of its official languages. There is a Swedish phrase used just below the mainline of the newspaper which goes to show that the newspaper does pay homage to its nationality, which it actually was established to meet the needs of (Vestkusten 1990). This also goes to show that the readership of the 1990 edition may all have been ones that are able to read English, and hence, the readership of the newspaper could then be said to be diverse in terms of race and nationalities that read the newspaper. However, in the 1915 edition of the Vestkusten newspaper, the content was purely published in the Swedish language (Vestkusten 1915). This may seem odd since the newspaper is supposed to detail to the desires and needs of the general American Society. Considering that the newspaper would publish a lot of content in its daily papers, it has to be believed that the newspaper singularly targeted the Swedish readership during 1915 since nothing seems to be written in English in the entire newspaper. This also goes to show how the newspaper has diversified its general readership over time and has started to appeal to more nationalities than just one nationality over the course of history since it has been operating. Furthermore, this also goes to show how there may have been many Swedish nationals living in the United States of America during the early 19^th Century since there was an entire newspaper dedicated to their needs.

Hence, it was discussed as to how the advertisements are published in a different manner in both years of 1915 and 1990. It was also discussed as to how these advertisements also vary in terms of the number of times that they are used in the newspaper editions and whether or not they have visual cues to go along with them in the print or not. Furthermore, it was also discussed as to how there is an absence of images and higher organized print in the 1915 edition while there is a lot of usage in terms of images in the 1990 edition and how organized the newspaper is in the 1990 edition. Furthermore, the type of news that was discussed in both yearly editions and the kind of information that these news and other factors told us about the way the American society has changed was also discussed. Finally, it was also discussed as to how the language used for the print changed over time, signifying the diverse needs that the newspaper had to become accustomed to. Therefore, in conclusion, it can be said that while the newspaper may still remember its original Swedish culture, it has become accustomed to the needs of the growing American society overtime, which has become more enthusiastic with consumerism and use of visual cues while reading domestic news rather than international news.

Bibliography

Vestkusten. “Vestkusten, Number 1, 15 January 1990.” California Digital Newspaper Collection. January 15, 1990. http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=VEST19900115&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN-1990——-1 (accessed March 24, 2016).

—. “Vestkusten, Number 2, 14 January 1915.” California Digital Newspaper Collection. January 14, 1915. http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=VEST19150114&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN-1990——-1 (accessed March 24, 2016).