The media's role in defining the nation : the active voice / David Copeland.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Cooking up paragraphs, articles, occurrences : colonial and revolutionary America -- My pen and press are the only formidable weapons I have ever used : the early republic -- The great organ of social life, the prime element of civilization : the Antebellum era and Civil War -- We expect great results from this work : post-Civil War and yellow journalism -- There is filth on the floor and it must be scraped up : the muckrakers and press of the early 20th century -- My medium is everywhere : new media and the new century -- My notebook still carries bloodstains : the World Wars and the Cold War -- The whole world is watching : the journalism of change, 1950s-1970s -- The scramble to fill 24 hours of air time : the end of the twentieth century -- Show-me journalism : media transformation in the twenty-first century.