Lincoln on the press

Here's a quote from Abraham Lincoln that shows why he was one of the most media savvy presidents: "The press has no better friend than I am--no one is more ready to acknowledge its tremendous power for both good and evil."

My new book published

My new book, Civil War Journalism, is out. It is the first synthesis of the journalism during the war from the perspective of both the North and South.  Chapters examine reporting the war, photographing and illustrating the war, editorializing about the war, censorship and government relations, and the impact of the war. The book is part of the Reflections of the Civil War series, edited by John David Smith.

A Web Site for Old News

The New York Times has an interesting story today about the Library of Alexandria, which is archiving every bit of news produced in the last three years by 20 different television channels. The library also has collected everything published on every Web page for the past 15 years, a monumental goal which already adds up tom more than 150 billion Web pages.  The library will be a tremendous resource for future scholars interested in studying the news media.