ראשיתה של המסורת העיתונאית האנגלו-אמריקנית בארץ ישראל

Abstract

Throughout the 19th century, a distinctive journalistic tradition emerged simultaneously in Britain and the United States, emphasizing norms and practices such as fact-based reporting, a clear separation between news and opinion, and objectivity. The Anglo-American tradition gradually spread to other locations including Continental Europe and Israel, becoming paradigmatic in the 1970s. However, the earliest manifestations of this were already noticeable in British-ruled Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s, mainly in the two Jerusalem-based media outlets reviewed in this article: the Palestine Telegraphic Agency (PTA), a local subsidiary of the international Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), headquartered in New York; and the Palestine Post newspaper. These two English-language news organizations catered to Palestine’s English readers (predominantly members of the Mandatory administration) and adhered perforce to the Anglo-American journalistic tradition to which their readers had been accustomed. Jacob Landau and Gershon Agronsky, the American founders of the two companies championed Anglo-American journalism on a variety of financial, political, and professional grounds.