The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-20
THE NEW IDEA OF NEWS.
Conservatism Demanded by More Refined Public Than Formerly.

New Orleans Times Democrat.
 The new idea of news is probably one of the most interesting phases of mod ern journalism. and it is at the same time one of the most refreshing. Newspapers of the higher kind have been showing tendency to minimize the importance ard conspicufty of the sensatonally vulgar happenings of the day. Papers of the purely yellow type hold to the old idea and feast upon vulgar occurrences. Shocking crimes, depravity in some new form. some peculiarly atrocions murder. some scandal which carries family honor down in ruin and utter disgrace, some- thing that is spicy and will command the attention of the yellow papers. and events of this character are spread and played up until there Is no danger of the pubic overlooking the thing. No ef- fort Is made to tone these happenings down. and to>refine them by closing out the sickening, vulgar features. On the other hand. tho uglier sides are fully dis played with perhaps Just a little color ing for fear that the thing is not re- volting enough to shock the public as the public should be shocked.
 But this yellow" tendency may not be charged up to. the whole American press. The newspapers which really play a part in the country's history, the newspa pers which are really factors In the unfold ing and development of the times. are the conservative, sober-policfed papers. the kind of newspapers which have reduced the news value of vulgar and sensational happenings. Family honor has become thing of too much sacredness to be tr- fled with and spiled by irresponsible scribblers. While newspapers of the con servative tyne reserve the right to. crit icise men and measures at all times and to criticise with violence and passion. the criticisms are yet within the lines of reason. They arc logical, from the ed itor's way of looking at the particular thing. But the new idea of news Is some thing separate and apart from the edi- tfafin al til fG.r nY.~nc alf tarh eral change has taken place in both tho news and editorial departments of news papers. Things of novel kind, out of the way haapPentngs little oddities here kind are now looked upon with great favor by the men who are. really pro- gressiye and who are up-to-date in journ- as marked in newspaper work as in oth CT professions. The story is the thing. Ten years ago but few men in the pro- fession would speak of stories except In simple. Now everything is a story. It was the beginning of the new idea of news. The story idea marked the de- parture from the old, vulgar and bru- of the day. Blood and bloody bones, and cutting and slashing. and all the more horrible things which make up current criminal history. are. not things to he uttlL WILL SldDOTdttly HOW. tuTer StD- ries are preferred. If there is a bit of romance about 1t, something that will appeal to mans finer sense. so much the better. If there is somewhat of com edy in the tale, enough of humor to stir the dimples and make the reader smile. 1t becomes factor in life. It does good. Stories of this kind are highly valued. There may be certain something in the bring into play the imaginative facul- ties. It may be something which appeals to the esthetic side of mans nature. It may be a poetic suggestion. The basic idea may be one of great pathos: It But the thing demanded by the new school is that 1t shall stand out in con trast with the dull. ordinary routine things of the day; It might be the de read a story of this kind in preference to one which dealt with an ordinary fight between men, unless the men were prominent
 The routine of the day IS necessary. Court records and things of that sort must be copied. Meetings must be re- ported. The little things must be looked after. They must be spread out in the columns and over the pages. But the fea- lures shine out here and there to break the dullness of it all. After blowing through column or more of Congress striking point of some sort is relished This is the new idea and 1t is really the dominant idea of journalism today
 But newspapers, after all, are but mir TOTS. They do more than hold up to pub lie gaze the history of the day. They reflect the public taste. They crystalize the public Judgment. Men and women are inclined to turn from the coarser events of the day. The age is spiritualized. Not spiritualized in an orthodox sense. Tt Is not d narrow, circumscribed spirttuslizs- ton. It is a broad refinement of intel lect, which makes men and women look up to higher ideals, and it Is this intiu- ence which is at work in the columns of newspapers and periodicals of every kind With the daily press 1t Is particularly ana peculiarly the dominant idea.