ABSTRACT
In 1929, when gunmen for mobster Al Capone mowed down members of a rival Chicago gang in what became known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the story became a national media event reported mainly by newspapers. Radio news was in its infancy; newsreels would not be able to produce and distribute a report to movie theaters for several more years, and then not until days after a major event; and TV was still only a laboratory experiment. Public relations was primarily about publicity-at times even involved in keeping stories out of the press. Weekly general-circulation magazines offered some news, but they mostly carried features, short literary stories and advertisements. Back then, only newspapers and the wire services that provided copy for papers around the country were capable of thoroughly reporting the story. Media writing was defined as newspaper journalism.
