My Reflections on "Mightier Than The Sword" by Rodger Streitmatter (Introduction & Chapter 1)

Reading the introduction of his book pointed out to me that he speaks moreso about how he "combines journalism and history". He explains that his book will be speaking about how the media took place in "shaping" history in many occurrences. He states that "the Fourth Estate shapes, not causes events to occur." He chose the word "shapes" because he wanted us to see the difference in that, media doesn't cause events to happen, but it can have tremendous influence on the outcome. He also says that "the news media are one of this country's most powerful institutions". Throughout the book, he says that we will read "[descriptions about] 15 events in American history where news media played a critical road in shaping landmark events." Streitmatter goes on to explain his reasoning about why he chose those particular events. He said there are a few reasons as to why he chose those specific 15. One of the reasons he chose those events is because "they span more than two centuries", this way we can see how journalism started and how it was received by the citizens and the difference from then up until now. Another reason is that "they involve a variety of media [such as] newspapers, news magazines, radio, television, and [the] internet". Finally, he concludes, is that "they illustrate how the news media have interacted with a broad range of other forces". He wrote this specifically for college student and ther general public; those who were interested in wanting to "learn more about the intertwining of the American news media and American history". Thomas Jefferson inspired the title of this book when he wrote a letter to Tom Paine in 1972. The title came from this line of the letter where Jefferson wrote "Go on then in doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword: show that reformation is more practicable by operating on the mind of many than on the body".

Chapter 1, "Sowing Seeds of Revolution", depicts the influence that the media had on the people in order to bring change in their society. Sam Adams wrote essays and news articles protesting against "taxation without representation" in 1764. He wanted it to be known that the colonies should create their own laws that can govern them. He didn't believe that the "Mother Country" should, although he still felt that they should hold on to the power over them. He knew that he had to get the citizens informed because he knew the more they knew and the more they agreed with him, the larger the impact and change would be when they were listened to. He needed their support when it came to his "revolutionary ideas", he needed for them to adopt and embrace the same cause as he, if he were to be successful in his mission. He was the person who conceived the "first systemactic gathering and distributing of news (a precursor of today's Associated Press)". Him and his team would gather information on what happened, when and where they happened and send that data down to John Holt, who is another Publisher for the New York Journal so that it can be put in the next edition of his paper. In doing this, there was a wide circulation of his work. Using this paper, which he named "Journal Occurrences", he was able to kick the British troops from out of Boston. The "Journal of Occurrences" came to a halt once they accomplished their goal, which was to kick the troops out.
Tom Paine, another writer of that time, had immense influence on many people on his thoughts of independence. After he was discharged from the British government, Benjamin Franklin suggested to him that he should go to American and he did. Paine went to Philadelphia in November of 1774 and got a job with the Pennsylvania Magazine. With this job and his knowledge, he was able to increase attention to himself and people really started listening to what he was saying whenever he wrote. He would speak negatively toward the British government and speak positively toward the American Colonies. His pamphlet, "Common Sense" that was written in January 1776 spoke about the future of the American Colonies. "His pamphlet turned the unsure colonists into rebels who were fully prepared to fight for a utopian new world". Within 3 months, 150,000 copies were sold, compared to an average of 2,000 of pamphlets or essays that would have normally been sold. Summarizing Paine's life and influence on the people, the Declaration of Independence was written 6 months after he had written his pamphlet.