Putnam patriot., 1928-11-22

ism urbanization was developing. Be- fore the significance of this in connee- ton with the newspaper becomes clear, it Is necessary to discuss briefly the nature of social life in the small com munity, remembering always that the papers in this country were published in just such small communities until long after the period of 1880. What was life like in the early days of the small community in this coun- try Authorities are generally agreed that isolation was a characteristic. The railroad came in 1880; the tele- graph was not important until more than twenty years after. Each com munity was, consequently, relatively self contained. Its interests were predominantly local interests.
 Another characteristic of life in the early small community was the pre- ponderance of what sociologists have come to designate as face-to-face re- iationships. Sociologists use the term primary groups; they mean that there are certain groups in which daily activities are carried on with high degree of intimacy. coupled with face to-faee contacts between group mates. Small towns today may be considered essentially as primary groups. Per- sonal contacts predominate. The clerk at the store is not just clerk, he is q person: Jim Brown who lives down at the Corners. The lawyers, the shoemaker, the doctors, even the laborers--in a small town they are persons known to many others with the community. There is neighborli- ness.
 Society in Small Communities This closeness of personal relation ships in the small community leads to interesting social results. First, any news of importance in such a com munity spreads with rapidity, and is not dependent upon a newspaper for it's spread. (Hence, probably, the aI- most negligible amount of purely local news in early papers) Second: since there is sense of personal relation ship between the group members, a certain code of ethics develops, making it unbecoming to say publicly anything that may be disparaging to another member of the community. One does not spread public statements that re- fleet upon the reputation of one with whom personal relationships prevail even though basis in truth for such statements might exist. One may gossip, yes, but open remarks may not be uttered, least of all printed.
 What would be the effect of these two factors upon the newspaper print ed in the small community? CD The fact that important news spreads rap idly by word of mouth would make it unnecessary for the editor to play up" such news in his paper. The pa per serves as medium for explaining and recording more than for inform ing on local matters. One knows of the events of which the editor writes; the excitement inherent in them has come through the telling. The report CT does not have upon him the burden of providing, through his style, the ex- citement or the interest that the event might be expected to arouse. Such style would stand as an anticlimax. The task of the paper is to record to state certain facts. The country news paper of today reflects this.
 (2) The editor in the small com munity is himself caught in the close ly knit web of group relationships. He is person, writing about people whom he knows personally, or to whom, at least, he stands in close relationship. The code of the primary group binds him. One should no more expect the editor of the community paper to pub fish material that reflected upon the community or it's inhabitants than one should expect the pastor of the church to announce from his pulpit the mis- doings of the members of his parish. Such materials may spread gossip, but not through the printed page The editor will print fattering and kindly notices; unpleasantnesses pass unmen- toned or appear with perfunctory. or moralizing, mention. Again. the country newspaper of today reflects this fact.
 Group Influences
 Taken together these two points mean that the paper of the small and relatively isolated community will not appear with it's contents written in an emotional style (the reader has gotten his emotional thrill from his primary contacts) and will not include in any featured way those types of news that are frequently so prominent in the prescnt-day city paper--news of scan dal, crime, etc.
 Reverting now to the figures on pop | ulation growth it will be recalled that | the trend toward urbanization began { about the third decade of the last cen tury. The history of the newspaper shows. also, that this was the period in which the elder. impersonal, unemo- tional type of newswriting began to give way before newspapers edited with a much more modern twang.
 Characteristic of urban communi- ties is the decrease of intimate face-to- face contacts and an increase in the impersonal nature of daily life. Not all face-to-face contact and group in timacy disappears, to be sure, but rel atively, 1t can be argued, life in the city is less characterized by contacts of the personal nature than it is in the small community. The trend to larger population centers, then, repre- sents the break-down of primary com munity groupings and the development of groups that may be designated as econdary--groups in which the inti- mate and personal contacts are de- creasingly important.
 With the transition to a nation com