Remembering a great man of words � Charles Dana
With our world continuously becoming incredibly unsafe, threatening the very human existence, despite unprecedented technological inventions and prosperity, human institutions are desperately searching for stable guidelines to steer them against excessive modern absurdities.
But there is one institution � the media � whose services, perhaps more than ever before, will be depended upon if only to save the world from total devastation. On its part, and in order to play its role in a meaningful way, a way that should not allow for mistakes, the media will have to be guided by the wisdom, vision and philosophy of one of its chief architects, Charles Anderson Dana, whose 185th birthday we celebrate this year.
Dana lived when America was in turmoil and faced devastating challenges: Economic depression, leading to, though not entirely responsible for, political instability; civil war, political animosity, and racial antagonism.
But Dana refused to succumb to these challenges. Instead, he offered crisp accounts and meticulous analyses of what was happening in his writings, popularised a limpid writing style that continues to be admired in modern-day journalism and, above all, never fell victim of political patronage. His contemporaries defined him as the greatest innovator in the 19th Century American journalism.
Born in 1819 in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, Dana attended public schools and later Harvard College but poverty and humble background forced him to leave college after only one year. He lost his mother when he was barely nine after she was claimed by an epidemic which swept through Western New York in 1828. Reluctant to meet his parental responsibility, Dana�s father scattered his children to his relatives. Dana grew up in Buffalo under the care of his uncle, David Dennison. Fifty years later, Dana traumatically described these events as the " saddest and most shocking" part of his life. Yet these events shaped his personality, making him to seek recognition, strive for financial independence and, arguably, became dangerously ambitious.
When Transcendentalist George Ripley founded Brook Farm, a radical economic community based on Christian principles, at West Roxbury in 1841, Dana became its trustee. Dana�s first newspaper work was with the Brook Farm�s newspaper, The Harbinger. His articles, exhibiting no element of mediocrity, showed his love for the poor, and prepared him for greater responsibilities as an assistant editor of the New York Tribune in 1847.
He popularised the Tribune, making it the most vocal and trusted anti-slavery newspaper of its day. He was later to recruit Karl Marx, the German economist and philosopher, as the Tribune�s European correspondent. In addition to his demanding duties at the Tribune, he began two literary projects, putting together an enormous Book of Poetry in 1857 and followed it one year later with the first volume of American Cyclopedia. , which has been described as a "popular dictionary of knowledge''.
Dana was to later serve as an assistant to Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War during President Abraham Lincoln�s reign. David Mindich in his book, Just the Facts: How Objectivity came to Define American Journalism, argues that the earliest inverted pyramid style can be traced in the letters that changed hands between Stanton and Lincoln.
President Lincoln often consulted Dana on several issues and one significant matter is the amendment of the constitution regarding slavery. In his Recollection of the Civil War, Dana not only describes Lincoln as a "leader of men who knew human nature" but incisively portrays how he chose to deal with a difficult vote on admission of Nevada as a state in 1864.
But Dana made a mark in journalism in 1867 when he bought New York Sun. He immediately announced that the "Sun � will study condensation, clearness, point, and will endeavour to present its daily photograph of the world�s doing in the most luminous and lively manners." The Sun became lively without being sleazy, entertained without being graphic, informed without being partisan, educated without being patronising, provided facts without spurning propaganda.
In her book, Journalism and Ideology in the Life of Charles Dana, Janet Steele avers that it is Dana who pioneered modern newspaper editing and a new kind of journalism, which stresses human interest.
That Dana was an exceptionally gifted journalist is not in question. But his ability to combine sympathy for the wretched, independence from political patronage, and an aesthetic sense of humour, all culminating in a unique editorial voice, contributed to the Sun�s success.
During the American civil war, readers became accustomed to a heavy journalistic style, editorial discussions permeated with propaganda, reports on deaths, blood, and misery. There was a need to cultivate another style. Dana is credited as one of the chief priests of an artistic, narrative style, which marked the development of a new journalistic technique. He set the pattern that was followed by the American Press for more than two decades and continues to be an inspiration to modern-day journalists. The Cambridge English and American Literature Vol 18 views this style as one that possesses simplicity, clarity, and where "human interest", not important of meaning or consequences, govern the choice of topic.
Dana�s ability to provide accurate and authentic news transformed the Sun to what Joseph Pulitzer called " the most piquant, entertaining and without exception the best newspaper in the world". It became a strong voice and an inexhaustible source of comfort and attachment for the working class. Undeniably, the Sun became the mouthpiece against injustices and corruption.
This is best exemplified by its unique coverage of the 1874 Tompkins Square demonstration. During this incident, desperate and hungry workers, suffocating under the weight of 1873 Economic Depression, gathered at the Lower East Park in New York City to petition the government. The workers were brutally dispersed by police. Most newspapers condemned the protest and the protestors. "Sham workingmen and dangerous fools," New York World described the miserable workers while the New York Tribune called them "insane and enthusiastic foreigners" with "criminal" demands and "foolish talks." Dana�s Sun never joined the near-universal chorus of condemnation. As one letter to the Sun�s editor shows, this is what the workers wished for: Your sensible and true remarks in today�s Sun concerning the troubles in Tompkins Square on Tuesday are just what the honest working man expected of you.
Dana was responsible for innovations of journalism of brevity, separation of advertisement from news and editorial material.
"When a dog bites man, that is not news, but when a man bites a dog, that is news" definition of news first appeared in Dana�s New York Sun in 1882.
Dana�s conviction that all people deserved information that was readily available and that they could afford was implicit in the Sun�s motto: The Sun Shines for All: Price two cents.
Despite his massive achievements and contribution, Dana's death received a brief announcement even in the Sun, just as he had wished and instructed. When he died on October 17, 1897, the Sun ran his obituary thus: Charles Anderson Dana, Editor of the Sun, died yesterday afternoon. Journalists will certainly learn from the commitment, focus and determination of this great journalist as they strive not only to inform but also enlighten humanity, the irreplaceable object of their love and duty.
Mr Wachanga is a journalism scholar at the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism, University of North Texas, US.
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