The first American newspaper was printed in Boston, Massachusetts on September 25, 1690. The mellifluously titled "Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick" was to be a monthly or "if any Glut of Occurrences happen, oftener".
One never knows when a Glut of Occurrences might occur.
Unfortunately, it was only published once. Four days later, on September 29, the British colonial authorities put an end to what would surely today be known as "Pobfab!"
The authorities were so offended by the 4 page paper's "...Reflections of a very high nature. As also sundry doubtful and uncertain Reports..." that they threw the editor in the pokey to reflect on the audacity of printing high natured reflections.
Reflect upon that for a second.
The first newspaper in the future US of A to make it to it's second edition didn't come along until 1704, also in Boston, at the "allowance" of the colonial Governor. Newspapers in New York and Philadelphia soon followed thanks to similar arrangements. Two years later, Benjamin Franklin was born in Philadelphia.
Franklin grew up reading everything the presses printed. In his early teens he started apprenticing in his older brother's print shop, one of several in town. His brother printed a weekly called the "New England Courant" that tended to walk the fine line between pats on the back and a day in the stocks. Evidently, it mirrored James Franklin exactly because about the time Ben was 17 and ready to tell him to take a hike he was jailed for libel. Ben himself published the paper until James was released. Then he told him to take that hike.
By 22 years old, Benjamin had raised enough money, today's value about 200 of those bills with his face, to open his own print shop. He started the "Pennsylvania Gazzette" in 1730. By 1750, he was a silent partner in presses all over the colonies, effectively owning the first newspaper chain.
From 1730 to 1770, Franklin and several others created the media that managed to develop a national unity without landing themselves in jail. The calls to independence in the 1770s came from the local papers. Thomas Paine's "Common Sense", which spurred the spirit that turned the tide of the American Revolution, was printed in the local newspapers across the colonies.
It is not a mistake that the freedom from government intervention of the press is in the First Amendment of our Bill of Rights. Of course, the press was the media--all of the media--in that time. The press, the newspaper, is at the foundation of our democracy. Not radio or television or internet. The newspaper.
In 1805, long before the first selfie was tweated onto the infotainment superduperhighway, the first national assessment of education levels was produced. According to the document, "scarcely more than one in a thousand persons cannot read fluently" on a national level.
That would correlate to a 99.9% literacy rate. They were reading newspapers.
Today in the United States, Americans get their information in a dozen different ways, mostly spoon fed through television, radio and internet. Interestingly, recent statistics show 21% of American adults cannot read above a 5th grade level. They also show those who read newspapers are far better informed than those who only watch cable news channels.
Reading makes you think, watching makes you gullible.
Or as Ben Franklin famously said, "Read. You can't believe anything you see on the tube."