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This hoax ran in a series of seven articles, stating the findings of an astronomer of the inhabitants of the moon; some of the creatures in the moon; as per the hoax, included the buffaloes, birds, man-bats and one horned zebras. The hoax described the discovery of life on the moon, and the possibility of man living in the moon without missing anything provide on the earth (Matthew, 24-30). The paper targeted the working-class individuals and the distribution level was in small volumes. It concentrated on writing stories on sports, scandals and communal activities.
The cost of this paper and other local newspapers used to cost approximately six cents. The hoax was intended to broaden the audience market by capturing the imagination and anxiety of the people. The story pasted a picture of reality and science fiction that made people to take it to be the truth. During this century, people believed that bat-men used to live on the moon. The hoax was the way the story was written in a captivating manner that made people to take the fiction as the truth. The author of this hoax did not know that this article was to fully democratize news and put his paper in the most successful penny paper.
The hoax narrated the existent of intelligent beings in the moon and all the other planets. He said that God could have not created these beautiful bodies without placing in them intelligent beings to stay there (Matthew, 45-50). . The populated city of New York believed that the moon was inhabited. The sun that was less than three years old became the best selling paper in the world. The hoax tried to show the freedom the journalists and other authors had to publish their work without any interference from authorities.
The hoax pasted the significance of protecting the inquiry ability of authors and newspapers in-order to deliver quality works to their clients (Matthew, 103-107). The problem with this kind of freedom was that the people were not given time to access the source of the information being published and they were easily manipulated. The rich and educated were not easily affected by this manipulation; on the other hand, the manipulation affected the poor and uneducated residents. This mixed experience, was helping make the penny paper successful.
The freedom and democracy in the journalism industry was gaining momentum. The freedom helped the journalists to be creative and ensure the news paper was highly ranked all the time. The moon hoax can be used today to explain the democracy and freedom the journalist, both the freelancer and employed journalist, enjoy today. Most journalists enjoy freedom of expression and little censor of their stories. The social media, blogs and newspaper websites have a free access of information. Though some sites may need one to sign up, the information is freely available and can be easily shared.
The internet has helped improve the communication, sharing and interaction among the journalists and the audience or between the journalists themselves. From 1990 onward, the internet has greatly grown, most newspaper companies have adopted audience friendly websites that
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