Transatlantic Exchanges

British and American journalism in the twentieth century has been characterised by mutual borrowing of styles and content, sharing of personnel, occasional transatlantic ownership, and shared interest in the respective countries' domestic news. This chapter will focus primarily on newspapers and magazines but, because newspaper and magazine journalism was, in the twentieth century, part of a broader media journalism and entertainment environment, it will occasionally make reference to other media. Particularly in the second half of the twentieth century, media cross-referenced each other and individual success in print journalism required comfortable use of broadcast media as well, while different journalistic media often depended upon the same news agencies. The chapter will argue that Anglo-American exchanges took three main forms: the movement of personnel and ideas across the Atlantic, in both directions; a shared culture of journalism that nonetheless had important variations; and, increasingly, a common ownership structure within a strongly Anglo-American-led corporate media structure that subordinated the imperatives of genre to those of shareholder value. These Anglo-American exchanges were, in turn, part of a wider 'Angloworld' that prominently included Canadian, Australian, Scottish and Irish participation. Although this chapter does not have space to address the wider 'Angloworld', it will give attention to Ireland. Given Ireland's proximity to the British mainland, its disputed status as either a renegade province of the United Kingdom or a partitioned colonial possession of the British Empire, and its position as the source of mass immigration to the United States across fully two centuries, it has not surprisingly been a significant contributor to the 'Anglo-American' model of journalism. For this reason, following an overview of the above themes, the chapter will conclude with a case study of an Irish-American journalist, Niall O'Dowd, highlighting the ways in which even a small-circulation, highly-focused newspaper and magazine could be shaped by the wider themes discussed in this chapter.