Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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recent years have been joined by two smaller networks, the Warner Brothers Network

(the WB, owned by

Time Warner

) and the United Paramount Network (UPN, owned by

Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon and

MTV

). Stations that are part of the WB or UPN

networks are considered independents by many in the industry because only a few hours

of broadcasting time originate from the network.

Stations that use network programming generally fall within three categories. First are

those called network O&Os, owned and operated by the network. Stations not owned by

the network that transmit their signal are called network affiliates; stations can also be

art of station groups, which means a chain of stations are owned by an entity other than

the network—for example Gannett (newspaper chain) owns a station group.

While networks are vertically integrated (they produce and sell all formats of shows

and often own stations), three of the Big Four also form part of larger media

conglomerates that are horizontally integrated. ABC is owned by

Disney,

CBS is owned

y Westinghouse/GE and FOX is owned by the News Corporation. Although NBC is

owned by NBC Enterprises rather than a conglomerate, it has entered into joint ventures

with Microsoft in order to gain a foothold in cable with the news station MSNBC.

Since Ted

Turner’s

foray into cable, viewership has gone down for network

roadcasting. Cable has seen the success of networks owned by Viacom (MTV,

ickelodeon, VH1), USA Broadcasting (Scifi Channel, USA Network), Time Warner

(HBO, Showtime, CNN), TCI (Discovery Channel, Court TV) and Cablevision

(American Movie Classics, Bravo, Independent Film Channel). The Big Four, in order to

maintain dominance, have launched synergistic cable stations such as ESPN, owned by

FOX and TCI, or NBC/Microsoft’s MSNBC. Until the opening up of the new format o

digital television, viewers can expect to see more joint ventures into the limited

marketplace.

Further reading

Chiasson, L., Jr. (1999)

Three Centuries of American Media,

Eaglewood: Morton.

Turow, J. (1999)

Media Today,

Boston: Houghton Miffilin.

EDWARD MILLER

New Age

Umbrella term covering various mystical, quasimystical and pseudo-mystical aspects o

modern American culture. The term dates back to the 1980s, although the ideas it covers

are often older. Some New Age concepts originated in 1960s and 1970s

hippie

psychedelic culture, including the emphasis on self-development and expansion and on

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 796

multiple forms of spirituality. However, New Age differs from psychedelic culture in

several ways. New Age tends to have a more holistic emphasis, stressing the notion o

eople within their environment; for example, many New Agers were strongly influenced

y the Gaia hypothesis (which portrays the world as a single living organism). Still, there

is little or no homogeneity among the various groups within New Age culture, which

range from pagans and covens of witches to health faddists and enthusiasts for

cyberculture. Some New Age groups are darkly anti-technological, others have large

web-sites. Some focus on single issues of importance, others have wider agendas.

A few general themes nonetheless appear. The personal health craze which began in

the 1970s overlaps with many elements of New Age culture, and many New Agers place

great stress on physical and mental health and fitness, seeing the two as overlapping.

Fashions in

food, physical fitness

and design range from the whole earth foods

movement to feng shui and crystal healing. This also relates to their emphasis on holism

and green philosophy New Agers have been involved in a number of radical

environmental movements.

The interest in alternative forms of spirituality is also inherited from the 1960s. A

strong emphasis on Indian spirituality including yoga and tantrism continues, but the

focus on Middle Eastern and Sufi philosophy has been dropped and replaced by an

interest in Eastern mysticism. Most evident, though, is the growth of “indigenous”

spiritual movements like wicca (see

witchcraft

). An interest in Norse and Celtic

paganism is also growing, and a number of “churches” have been founded. These new

spiritual groups reject what they see as a darklight polarism in Judaeo-Christianity in

favor of a more “balanced” view of the world.

Critics of the New Age movement argue that it is a jumble of fads and poorly

understood mystical faiths with no real philosophical core. This criticism is in many ways

ustified; however, the holistic focus and emphasis on personal development are to some

extent a reaction to the increasing secular materialism and technological determinism o

the modern world. Interestingly and this again separates the New Age from hippie

culture, most New Age groups do not reject technology and material values. Instead, they

seek to subvert these things and build them into their own neo-materialist philosophy

which situates materialism within a wider world view. Things, in the New Age view, are

also artifacts, resonant with a variety of values.

MORGEN WITZEL

Newark, NJ

Newark grew in the nineteenth century as an industrial city in the shadow of

New York

City, and, like other

cities,

was heavily reliant on growing immigrant communities for its

labor. Beginning in the 1920s, large industrial firms left the city creating slums like the

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“Hill District,” considered one of the worst

ghettos

in America. A brief boom during and

after the Second World War encouraged southern black migrants to settle in Newark, but,

by the end of the 1950s, with the

white flight

to the

suburbs,

the city began to decline

rapidly By the mid-1960s the city had a disaffected black majority population, policed by

a largely white

police

force. The black residents were victims of considerable police

brutality, which resulted in the 1967

race riot,

during which twenty-one

African

Americans

died and 1,600 were injured. During this period, the city was also noted for

the black nationalist cultural initiatives of Amiri

Baraka

. Since the mid-1980s, and the

election of Mayor Sharpe James, the city claims to be undergoing a renaissance, with a

new

museum, performing arts

center and bustling regional airport, though it still retains

much of its negative reputation.

ROBERT GREGG

New Deal

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano; Attorney-General; Eisenhower, Dwight David;

freedom; newspapers; backlash; Supreme Court; welfare/welfare reform

New England

When Captain John Smith voyaged to the region in 1614 he mapped the coast and named

the area in his

A Description of New England

. Eventually, New England came to include

the six states that form the northeastern corner of the United States: Connecticut, Rhode

Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Its people, unified to a

large extent by a shared geography, climate and history, are known for their conservative

dress and mannerisms and their taciturn behavior—one of the most clearly defined o

American regional identities.

Carved by glaciers during the Ice Age, New England is in the paths of three major

weather

systems moving from Canada, the

Great Lakes

and up the eastern seaboard. Its

weather, therefore, is extreme, variable and somewhat unpredictable.

When Europeans explored and traded with the

American Indians

the latter were

decimated by diseases from abroad, leaving much of the coast unpopulated. Settlements

of English Puritans in the 1620s spread rapidly as thousands of families cultivated the

fertile coastal area. By the late 1700s they had destroyed or absorbed almost all of the

local tribes.

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The English settlements established the pattern for the area’s culture. Like much o

rural New England today, a typical village consisted of several families with the same

religion. Most people fished, farmed or harvested timber for a living and gathered weekly

at the meeting house for religious service, town business and militia drills on the town

green. They held an annual town meeting to discuss and vote on each item in the budget

and elect officers. These meetings remain an important tradition today.

Throughout the nineteenth century, farming continued and

cities

grew. Waves o

European immigrants filled the factory and day-laborer jobs, and were joined by southern

African Americans

after Reconstruction failed. Second- and third-generation

white

New

Englanders moved into management and other white-collar professions.

Twentieth-century New England experienced major social, demographic and economic

changes. Farming declined and then never recovered from the 1930s Depression. General

manufacturing,

fishing

and

forestry

also lost ground while new businesses, such as high-

tech manufacturing, service and

tourism,

gained rapidly in the last half of the century.

Economic growth in the 1950s and 1960s brought

urban-renewal

projects to replace

poor downtown

neighborhoods

with parks and businesses, and moved lower-income

families to government-subsidized

public housing

. When manufacturing jobs headed

south for lower labor costs, local factory closings created acute unemployment in most

cities in the 1960s and 1970s, increasing

inner-city

decay, crime, family abuse, racial

problems and

white flight

to the

suburbs

As the economy improved, interest rates lowered and unemployment rates declined at

the end of the twentieth century. Some of the new urban

middle class

gentrified formerly

decaying neighborhoods, and many New England cities conducted beautification

programs to invigorate their centers.

Better incomes for other work and high prices for land lured most farm families to sell;

by the end of the century few of New England’s farms were active. Rural New England

became mostly bedroom towns and new woodlands, evidenced by former farmers’ stone

walls lacing the forests. Suburbia grew from cities onto the farmland. Housing

developments, shopping centers,

malls,

chain convenience stores and retail strips became

part of the landscape.

ourism

throughout New England is substantial. Avid outdoor sports enthusiasts and

other tourists find their way to New England’s picturesque towns, mountains, pastoral

vistas of rolling hills and farmlands, forests with brilliant autumn colors, coastlines o

sandy beaches, estuaries lined with cattails and marsh grasses, and miles of craggy

granite. The states’ many glacially formed lakes and coast attract millions escaping

summer’s heat.

A deeply rooted maritime history imbues the coast with mystique and romance. Small

coastal villages and towns, first established as fishing communities, later became summer

havens for the wealthy and artists, and then vacation destinations for the

middle class

and tourists. While able to absorb many summer dwellers, some villages changed their

character when tourist businesses took control. Nonetheless, many coastal communities

from western Connecticut to eastern Maine retain their maritime culture.

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The significance of local history is evident in the landmarks and historic sites that

abound throughout the region. A renewed interest in many Americans’ genealogy has

helped maintain historic buildings and archival information through local and national

historic preservation groups. It has also helped local Native Americans re-establish

themselves after centuries of almost invisible existence.

The presence of many educational institutions of higher learning in New England is an

important force in its culture and economy

Boston, MA,

“The Hub” of New England, has

the highest concentration of college students in the world. It attracts some of the best

intellects who have stayed in the region to create new technology and service industries.

Originally they concentrated on the Route 128 beltway around Boston (Silicon Alley),

ut then spread to the fringes of New England in the 1980s and 1990s with advanced

telecommunications.

New Englanders’

olitics are hard to define. Conservative in much of their thinking,

they are liberal about human and individual rights. While many New Englanders voted

Republican

in the twentieth century regional politics also include many registered

independent voters, women in high offices and the

Democratic Party’s

powerful

Kennedy

dynasty. The New Hampshire primary first presidential contest, brings national

attention to these political currents every four years.

The extreme climate and geography of New England, which hardened the early settlers

and their ensuing generations, helped define the “Yankee Character.” Although the image

has eased over time due to the influences of

mass media, mobility

and the gradual

introduction of other cultures into New England’s populace, practicality self-reliance, a

strong work ethic and a stoic acceptance of life’s difficulties have continued to be facets

of this traditional people.

Further reading

Howe, G.W.

et al.

(1989)

New England as a Region,

Orono: New England Cooperative

Extension Service.

Kay, J.H. and Chase-Harrell, P. (1986)

Preserving New England,

New York: Pantheon B.

Verrill, A.H. (1936)

Along New England Shores,

New York: Putnam.

(Also, there are more than fifty periodicals focused on New England.)

KATHLEEN GALLIGAN

WARREN RIESS

New Frontier

Kennedy, John F.

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new journalism

Thomas

Wolfe,

one of its most famous practitioners, popularized the phrase in the 1960s,

referring to a new style of non-fiction writing, the product of growing dissatisfaction with

traditional reporting and a spirit of experimentation taking hold of American literature

more generally. New Journalists began to develop their own innovations, for example a

more personalized writing style, to produce their stories. The movement’s opponents

charged that these journalists were either promoting news-as-

ropaganda or skirting

dangerously close to confusing fact and fiction. These criticisms sharpened with the

discovery that 1981

Pultizer

prize winner Janet Cooke, using something like the New

Journalism writing style in a series of stories on an eleven-year-old drug pusher, had in

fact concocted the story. Although many of the techniques used by New Journalists

persist in American journalism and in much modern American fiction or literary non-

fiction, the term itself has become less popular.

MARK BREWIN

Newman, Paul

b. 1925

With actor-wife Joanne Woodward (1930–; m. 1958), Newman has carved out a

distinguished role in American film and

theater,

where his own physical presence has

been nuanced by humor and intelligence. Among Newman’s best roles are those o

complex, troubled outsiders (

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,

1958;

Hud,

1963;

Cool Hand Luke,

1967, etc.). Newman also directed Woodward in the Oscar-nominated

Rachel, Rachel

(1968). The couple have also become known as liberal activists, supporting causes with

proceeds of the “Newman’s Own” line of foods since the 1980s.

GARY McDONOGH

New Orleans, LA

Founded in 1718 near the mouth of the Mississippi River, New Orleans long has been a

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major

Southern

economic center with a unique cultural heritage. French and Spanish

colonizers, alongside African American slave and free populations, created a distinctive

Creole

legacy, which survives in the

architecture

of the French Quarter

(Vieux Carré),

pervasive

Roman Catholicism,

Mardi Gras—America’s only established carnival—and

renowned foodways based on rice, seafood and spices. Additional cultural influences

have come from

Cajuns

and immigrants from Ireland, Italy Germany and the

Bible belt

New Orleans is not merely an artifact of the past, however it may be read as such by

millions of tourists each year. Today the city of 464,840 (metropolitan area, 1.3 million)

remains a vital economic center. Its many cultural and educational centers include Tulane

and the black Catholic Xavier University Professional sports teams include the Saints

(football)

and Jazz

(basketball),

while black New Orleans is especially famous for both

blues

and Dixieland

jazz

The city’s personalities have evoked vivid fictional and cinematic portrayals from

ezebe

(1939) to

The Big Easy

(1986). Many of these narratives deal with

race

and

class

relations, which improved slowly in the late twentieth century Beyond

waterfront

development and charming residential districts, in fact, crime, poverty racism and

corruption have been consistent urban issues, influencing more recent debates over casino

gambling

and

urban renewal

. Today, New Orleans thus faces the continual challenges

of fostering citizenship and maintaining authenticity, while selling itself as a major global

destination.

GARY McDONOGH

news, radio

By the 1940s, Americans were receiving much of their news from

radio

. Despite a 1934

agreement between the print and radio media that radio news would be limited (and that

those reciting the news on the radio were to be called commentators and not reporters),

radio became key for transmitting the news. The Hindenberg disaster and the encroaching

war in Europe and Asia became radiophonic experiences. The obvious advantage of radio

over print was immediacy, while a secondary advantage lay in the dramatics of the voice.

Commentators could transmit news as it was occurring live to the audience, bringing the

event into the

home

as eyewitnesses who spoke with an audible connection to it. With the

Second World War, broadcast journalism was catapulted into a crucial position, and radio

dramas were often interrupted by news of the war. It was this ability to interrupt

rogramming that made network executives realize there was enough news to fill up a

station’s entire day.

Today there are radio stations that broadcast news 24 hours a day The format is fast-

changing with a fast-talking DJ. It is repetitive, with roundups and headlines—a talking

newspaper, as station executives called the format when it began in the 1960s. The news

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may vary slightly from hour to hour, but the structure of each hour is the same, which

again is like the lay-out and pagination of a newspaper. These talking

newspapers

have

ecome a mainstay among radio stations on the AM dial, operating in most major cities.

The Westinghouse network was one of the forerunners of this format, which continues to

be successful four decades later, perhaps because America’s ability to produce news has

continued to accelerate.

EDWARD MILLER

news, television

Discussions of the information society at the end of the century resonate with the prestige

and immediacy of news from the earliest days of television to the present. Adding

pictures and gradually building in on-site coverage and commentary by distinguished

correspondents,

television

news also celebrated its independence from government

control and the limits of print. Over decades, news became the flagship of

network

prestige—anchormen like Walter Cronkite mediated the memories of a generation

dealing with the

Kennedy

assassinations, the Moon landing and Vietnam. Yet critics

have assailed network news for confusing journalism and entertainment, like the

O.J.

Simpson

trial and

Clinton

sex scandal, adapting to corporate needs and ratings rather

than investigation or truth—a charge argued in movies like

Network

(1976),

Broadcas

ews

(1987) and

Mad City

(1999). Indeed, even the visual elements of television may

work against complex non-visual news (like coverage of the

Supreme Court

Meanwhile, network news is losing viewership and money In 1997 only 42 percent of the

viewing public watched network TV evening news, down from 60 percent in 1993. The

majority of viewers, moreover, are sixty-five and older.

We must be careful, however, to relate news to multiple changing contexts. In the early

days of television, seasoned

white

male journalists delivered “truth,” although later

critics may forget that even serious commentators were also involved with

celebrity

interviews, product endorsements and

game shows

. While Edward R.

Murrow’s

Harves

of Shame

(1959), documenting the plight of migrant farm workers, is taken as a milestone

of television news, for example, Murrow also visited

stars’

homes in his weekly

Person

to Person

(CBS, 1953–61). And in the years before television reported the medical

impact of

tobacco,

cigarettes were props and endorsements for thoughtful commentators.

onetheless, generations including John Cameron Swayze, Walter Cronkite, Chet

Huntley and David Brinkley Eric Sevareid and others established a mantle for the

authoritative anchor subsequently inherited by long-term network anchors Peter Jennings,

Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather.

The introduction of women as anchors—

ioneered by feature interviewer Barbara

Walters—and the presence of blacks and other minorities as reporters and anchors

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respond to perceptions of audiences and issues rather than intrinsic shifts in perspectives

or news. Dramatic visual images of

civil rights

that galvanized America were conveyed

by white reporters and camera men; declines in

affirmative action

or issues of the Third

World have been ignored by culturally diverse networks in the 1990s.

It is clear that news coverage does have an impact on how Americans understand and

react to events. Hence, television news coverage on politics has sparked constant debates.

Early TV news offered American politics, gavel to gavel. The immediacy of political

conventions and the

Watergate

hearings drew millions to the tube, and TV news was

credited with providing a relatively transparent representation of the US political process.

Other Sunday-morning panels also have allowed politicians and newsmakers to discuss

serious issues with journalists as hosts and interrogators. Yet, facing telegenic political

contests (Kennedy versus

Nixon,

Clinton versus

Dole),

one must ask if media are channel

or cause. Moreover, with the rise of the political consultants, who are adept in creating

media events for the candidates or politicians, TV viewers learn to view politicians as

media-generated icons, while images and soundbites avoid more substantive issues.

Television news has been accused of only reporting the horse-race aspects of elections,

concentrating on opinion polls and personalities.

In the 1980s and 1990s, network news has expanded into

prime time

as magazine

format shows. These feature network personalities and stories of corporate corruption,

personal tragedy medical triumphs (and tragedies),

celebrity

gossip and natural disasters

and have become almost nightly staples. The most senior and popular of this format,

Sixty

inutes,

has remained among the top ten shows for years since its beginning in 1968.

Local news

magazines

have tended to concentrate on nostalgic history minority

opulations and special events. Another extension of the morning/ evening schedule was

the introduction of ABC’s

Nightline

(1980–), which grew from coverage of the Iran

hostage crisis into a monographic report after local news. PBS news has always been

considered as quality and liberal news; however, researchers have pointed out that the

guest list in the famous McNeil/Lehrer

News Hour

(PBS) often favors white males.

Cable, however, provides the most telling shift in American news. CNN, with its axis

Atlanta, GA,

rose to national and international prominence through coverage of the

Gulf War via 24-hour news. C-SPAN, as a public service offered by

cable

providers,

offers complete, relatively neutral coverage of events, including sessions of

Congress

Other cable news services have added talk, call-ins and gossip; many like MSNBC,

suggest

Internet

connections for immediate updates, while CNBC promotes finance and

business information.

With TV a mature medium, producers, journalists, politicians, as well as the audience

all understand how to manipulate or simply use the medium to their advantages. While

many in the audience still believe that the evening TV news is authoritative, more are

skeptical. The news media, including the print press, and electronic media were attacked

y the American public for their handling of the Clinton scandal. In the end, Clinton was

not convicted, no matter how big the story was.

Local TV newscasts have faced other difficulties despite strong revenues. While some

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early newscasts for metropolitan centers drew on extensive station resources and

ournalistic pools trained in radio and newspapers, others have relied on photogenic

announcers and wire services to create their news. Over decades, additions like local

color features, movie reviews, medical news and product testing have blurred the

dimensions of “serious” news, while sensational crime and weather stories in far-away

laces in the country will appear on local news if the footage is good. Basic services

including news, weather and sports also have been smothered with local boosterism and

“happy-talk” formula that wraps every story in banter among the anchors.

Local news stations nonetheless remain linked to network affiliates and practices—

acting as frontline and feeders for breaking stories, honing anchors and other

personalities and following up on major stories. As they have expanded to 1- or 2-hour

roadcasts in the afternoon, some even cover national and global stories before the

national reports. National news, in turn, has picked up the features and, in news

magazines, the chattier format of the local desk.