Country Newspaper

by Malcolm W. Willey, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Dartmouth College. University of North Carolina Press, 1926. pp. xii-153, $1.50.

This recent book by Professor Willey is, as. its title would indicate, a study of the small town and rural newspaper in present day American life. Has the country newspaper outlived its usefulness? Is it doomed to dwindle in numbers and decline in utility because of hopeless competition with the metropolitan press? Or has it still a legitimate function in the life of its community? Is there a real need which it should satisfy? With a standard for the ideal country newspaper in mind, how can we decide whether a given paper is fulfilling its functions ? By what means shall we determine intelligently whether country newspapers as a whole are measuring up to their opportunities and responsibilities? As a matter of fact, are they doing so? It is to these questions that Professor Willey has sought an answer, by careful thought and reflection, upon a scientific basis of analysis and research.

The author first studied the field of the country paper and came to reasoned conclusions as to its proper functions in the life of the locality it serves and as a factor in the upbuilding of American social consciousness. His next task was to find an adequate and really scientific method of classifying the reading matter of a newspaper, to permit of an accurate estimate of its news and editorial emphasis as data for determining the extent to which it is efficiently functioning. The next and most laborious work was actually to examine and classify the rural press of a representative area for a considerable period of time. Here the country newspapers of Connecticut were clipped and tabulated for a period of one year. As to the work involved, suffice it to say that 35 papers were examined for 52 weeks, making 1860 papers to be dissected. And, finally, the data had to be evaluated, tendencies noted and conclusions drawn.

The results are out of proportion to the size of the slender volume published. It is the first serious study of the work of the American country newspaper, a subject of real importance. It is exhaustive in its examination of the small town press of Connecticut, a typical American state. More important than either, Professor Willey has ingeniously devised a method of classification of the contents of newspapers for the purpose of studying their emphasis and incidence that is more scientific than any method previously used. Other students will utilize this pioneer work in the principles of classification for an examination of the functioning of the metropolitan press. Such studies will give the student of the social sciences a more accurate idea of the role of the newspaper in American life, and its share in the formation of 'public opinion. There has been much written on the subject of the influence of the newspaper on modern American civilization. But for the most part it has been sheer guesswork. This book shows that there is possible a certain amount of really scientific research and fact gathering in this field.

The number of small town newspapers in America is not generally realized. According to the reliable statistics of N. W. Ayer and Son there were 14,300 weekly newspapers printed in the United States and Canada in 1924, of these 11,500 were country and small town newspapers. The remainder were religious, agricultural, class publications or city weeklies.

When the weeklies were first established they were the only papers to which their readers had access. They furnished their subscribers with world news. In the absence of circulating libraries and in view of the scarcity of books and magazines they also furnished fiction and "instructive articles," of course that situation has wholly changed. The big New York daily reaches any part of Connecticut, the Boston paper the most rural sections of Vermont and New Hampshire within a few hours. The farmer has a greater appetite for world news than in the old days, and he and his village neighbor both realize that that appetite can be better satisfied by the city press. As to fiction, illustrated weeklies and monthly fiction magazines circulate everywhere, and more timely articles than a busy man on a farm or in a country store can read are to be had for a nickle in the Saturday Evening Post. And yet there must be some real need that the country papers still fill or they would not be published.

Professor Willey sees this function in the supplying of news of a purely local nature and in comment on local affairs and conditions. There is also the function of interpreting nation wide or even world wide news from a local standpoint. These functions are immensely significant to the sociologist for this work in building social consciousness and unity—as he well says: "There can be no political democracy, much less economic or social democracy, in a group where psychological unity is lacking." The intelligent country editor has it in his power to make his weekly issue as valuable a community institution as is the school or the church. His job is, first, to help the community to know itself and, second, to connect for his readers their own local affairs with those of the nation and vice versa.

The author arrived at his method of classification by the inductive process. It is a well known custom of the newspaper world to include the essential features of every article, "story," or item in the opening sentences. This they call the "lead" or the "what." For two weeks every item in the New York Sun was read and titled according to the "what." Then for one month the same process was tried with two Connecticut weeklies. By this means 49 subheadings or categories were established, and arranged in 10 major groups. Each subheading was defined as accurately as possible before the principal work of classification began. Thus the newspapers themselves and not an a priori scheme in the mind of the writer determined classification.

Some of the principal conclusions as a result of the study were that the Connecticut weekly papers are deficient in the amount of local news material that they print, that they are deficient in the amount of socially significant news printed, and that they vary markedly in the consistency with which they print given kinds of news, the variation being high in certain significant news categories. The failure of the local press of this typical state to meet the needs of its readers is in part attributable to the free use of syndicated press material which has no local significance or value. Another trouble is the lack of realization by the editors of their own functions. Often they deliberately use fiction or general information articles to the exclusion of important local news under the impression that such matter is of real interest to their readers.

The book may be read with interest by all who are concerned with rural and small town life, with newspaper work, or with the bigger problem of public opinion and its formation as well as by the student of sociology.