The Life Cycle and Conventions of Nineteenth-Century Breaking News: Disaster Reporting of the 1875 Virginia City Fire
Volume 35, No. 3, 2018
By Katrina J. Quinn, Slippery Rock University
Imagine half of your hometown burning to the ground. People would be frantic, desperately trying to rescue their possessions, find family members, and make their way to safety. Depending on your vantage point, there would be a cacophony of sounds, flashing lights and flames, heat, smoke, and a rush of emotions. This was the scene in 1875 Virginia City, Nevada, when the “fire fiend” struck that early morning of Tuesday, October 26.
It wasn’t hard for Americans in the nineteenth century to imagine such a scene. In a pre-electric age of candles, lanterns, and open flames in the hearth, fire was a constant threat. Houses, barns, and even entire city blocks fell victim to fires on a fairly regular basis. But how did the press report these disasters?
This study was an effort to understand how breaking news of a disaster was reported in the late nineteenth-century press. It took a look at local, regional and national newspapers to determine how quickly and for how long the fire was covered; the accuracy of that coverage; the content and style of stories about the fire; and how newspapers presented these stories.
The research shows almost immediate coverage of the event despite limited information available. Coverage then escalated through the week and tapered after day five. Many newspapers relied on telegraph dispatches, frequently printing them with little or no editing; however, this practice also protected accuracy in the early days after the fire. During the first week, the research also shows an escalation in the level of detail, the frequency of sensational stories, and the diversity of fire-related reporting content.
One of the surprises of this research is the discovery that nineteenth-century disaster news coverage presents a number of similarities to disaster news reporting today – that is, a value for timeliness, the evolution of the story through the first week, and a common interest with readers in detailed and human-interest dimensions of the event.
Exercise 1: Sensational Coverage
One of the findings of this article is that sensational reporting—that is, reporting characterized by detail saturation, emotional language, descriptive sensory information, etc.—“provided nineteenth-century readers the emotional texture and image resolution that video and photography bring to modern disaster reporting.”
Consider this passage from the Sacramento Daily Record-Union of October 30, 1875:
“The drowsy town was shaking off the languor of slumber, and rousing itself to the activities of another day, when suddenly a harlot’s house bursts into flames; the alarm bells ring and the shrill whistles of the mills pierce the air, the engines rattle over the pavements and the hoarse cry of men, the call for help, the shriek of fear fill the air. As citizens spring to their doors a fierce blast meets them sweeping down the bleak slope of Mt. Davidson from the southwest, and with it comes the hot breath of the destroyer already girding himself to ride upon the wings of the wind to a mighty contest and a triumphant victory. The battle begins with all the advantages on the side of the fire, to which the fierce wind becomes an active ally. The result you know; nearly one-half the city is in ashes and fully seven-tenths of all the business houses are destroyed.”
Discussion:
- What details in this passage signal a sensational approach? How does the use of present-tense contribute to this effect?
- Do you agree with the article’s conclusion that “the effect of these strategies is not only to captivate the readers but also to illustrate a complete picture of the disaster event that in some ways was more precise and comprehensive than dispatch reportage alone could ever be?” Why or why not?
- Considering ethics: Much of the sensational reporting on the Virginia City fire was written in a narrative style, using some of the literary strategies of fiction, including metaphors, personification, and descriptive language. Do you believe it was ethical for journalists to enhance their stories with these strategies? Why or why not?
Exercise 2: Breaking News Coverage in the Digital Age
Today’s kinetic media environment, with its multiple platforms and socially generated content, has transformed the way breaking news and disasters in particular are reported. As a class or in groups, identify a recent disaster event, such as the California mudslides or wildfires of 2018. Search for news media coverage of this event using multiple platforms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Discussion:
- Search for examples of breaking news, human-interest stories, and incidental coverage in the reporting on your event. How do these stories compare in timing and subject matter to stories related to the Virginia City Fire?
- How quickly was news of the disaster reported, and how often did news outlets provide updated reports? How is the news value of timeliness transformed in a digital environment?
- Considering ethics: What ethical issues might arise in the coverage of a disaster event?
Exercise 3: How Would You Report It?
One of the most valuable outcomes of historical research is when it informs contemporary practice or understanding of a profession. This activity therefore asks students to apply the methods outlined in the article in a simulation.
As a class or in teams, assume there has been a fire or other disaster event in your local community. Describe the hypothetical event in terms of timing and location. How would you report the breaking news? Consider the types of stories your readers, viewers, or listeners would want to know and how your reporting would evolve throughout the first week.
- Breaking news. In a breaking news phase, what facts or content would you want to discover? Who would be your sources? On which platforms would you disseminate your story? What multimedia content would you like to acquire to accompany your coverage?
- Human interest. What human-interest stories would you report in connection to this event? List potential subjects for your coverage and why you would select them. When would this coverage begin? What multimedia content could you use to supplement your reporting?
- Incidental news. What incidental news stories might emerge as a result of this event? Consider the broad impact of this event on local residents, the business community, and perhaps the region. When would you begin this coverage, and how long would it last?
Discussion:
- How would your coverage change if this disaster took place in a nearby town or state?
- Considering ethics: Is there anything you would withhold from the written or multimedia reporting? If so, why?
Resources:
American Periodicals database from ProQuest
Chronicling America archive housed at the Library of Congress: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
California Digital Newspaper Collection: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc
Cooperative Libraries Automated Network Digital Collections provided by the Nevada State Library: http://206.194.194.211:2011/
McGrail, J. Patrick. “Sensationalism, Narrativity and Objectivity—Modeling Ongoing News Story Practice.” Doctoral dissertation, Syracuse University, 2008.
Monahan B., Ettinger M. “News Media and Disasters: Navigating Old Challenges and New Opportunities in the Digital Age.” In Rodríguez H., Donner W., Trainor J. (eds) Handbook of Disaster Research. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, 2018.
Sachsman, David, and David Bulla, eds. Sensationalism: Murder, Mayhem, Mudslinging, Scandals, and Disasters in 19th-Century Reporting. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2013.
Wei, Jiuchang; Dingtao Zhao, and Liang Liang, “Estimating the Growth Models of News Stories on Disasters,” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 60, no. 9 (2009): 1741–1755.