Famous journalists of the English speaking country: Benjamin Franklin
Інститут журналістики
Київського національного університету
ім. Т. Шевченка
Реферат
на тему:
“Famous
journalist of
the English-speaking country.
Benjamin Franklin”
Виконала
студентка 1 курсу (ВСР)
група 1
Костюченко Аліна
2006 рік
Benjamin
Franklin ( 1706-1790), was a jack-of-all-trades and master of many. No other
American, except possibly Thomas Jefferson, has done so many things so well.
As statesman, Franklin
stood in the front rank of the people who built the United States. He was the
only person who signed all four of these key documents in American history : the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France,
the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, and the Constitution of the United States.
Benjamin Franklin was
born in Boston on jan. 17, 1706. He was the 15th child and youngest
son in a family of children. His parents, Josiah and Abiah Franklin, were
hard-working, God-fearing folk. His father made soap and candles in his shop “at the sign of the Blue Ball” on Milk Street.
Benjamin
attended school in Boston for only two years. He proved himself excellent in
reading, fair in writing, and poor in
arithmetic. Josiah Franklin decided that he could not afford further education
for his youngest son. He kept Benjamin home after the age of 10 to help cut
wicks and melt tallow in the candle and soap shop.
Franklin
schooling ended, but his education did not. He worked on his own writing style,
using a volume of the British journal The Spectator as a model. The boy also
taught himself the basic principles of algebra and geometry, navigation,
grammar, logic, and the natural and physical sciences. He studied and partially
mastered French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Latin.
When the boy
was 12, his father persuaded him to become an apprentice to his older, brother
james, a printer. James proved to be a good teacher, and Benjamin a good pupil.
He soon became a skilled printer. He wrote several newspaper articles, signed
them Mrs/ Silence Dogood, and slipped them under the printshop door. James
admired the articles, and printed several of them. But he refused to print any
more when he discovered that Benjamin had written them. At 17, Franklin ran
away to Philadelphia, which was then the largest city in the American Colonies.
From 1723 to
1730, Franklin worked for various printers in Philadelphia and in London,
England, where he was sent to buy printing presses. He became part owner of a print
shop in 1728, when he was 22. Two years later, he became sole owner of the
business. He began publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette, writing much of the
material for this newspaper himself. Franklin had a simple formula for business
success. He believed that successful people had to work just a little harder
that any of their competitors.
Later in
1730 Benjamin Franklin married Deborah Read. Deborah was not nearly so well
educated as her husband. Her letters to him have many misspelled words.
Benjamin Franklin
printing business prospered from the start. He developed The Pennsylvania
Gazette info one the most successful newspapers in the colonies. He always
watched carefully for new ideas. Historians credit him as the first editor in
America to publish a newspaper cartoon, and to illustrate a news story with a
map. Benjamin Franklin published The Pennsylvania Gazette from 1729 until 1766.
But Franklin
achieved even greater success with Poor Richard”s Almanac
that with his newspaper. He wrote and published the almanac for every year from
1733 to 1758. In 1753 he became deputy postmaster general for all the colonies.
Franklin worked hard at this job, and introduced many needed reforms. Benjamin
Franklin also helped Canada establish its first regular service.
Benjamin
Franklin was public-spirited, and worked constantly to make Philadelphia a
better city. For example, he reformed the city police when he saw that
criminals were getting away without punishment. City streets were unpaved,
dirty, and dark, so he started a program to pave, clean, and light them and
other…
Benjamin
Franklin helped draft the Declaration of independence , and was one of the
documents signers.
Franklin
returned to Philadelphia in 1785. For the next two years he served as president
of the executive council in Pennsylvania. In 1787, Pennsylvania sent the
81-year-old Franklin to the Constitutional Convention. The delegates met in
Independence Hall and drafted the Constitution of the USA.
Benjamin
Franklin died on the night of April 17, 1790, at the age of 84. Franklin led
all the people of his time in his lifelong concern for the happiness,
well-being, and dignity of humanity.
Philadelphia has also revered
the memory of its most famous citizen.