Newspapers Historical Background

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By Amir Chowdhury                                                                 Maths Coursework

                                                                                Mr Hore

Newspapers

Historical Background

Until the invention of printing, the public had to be satisfied with whatever information it was given by official sources, or it had to make do with hearsay and rumor. The early evidence of an official means of spreading news dates from 59 BC in Rome, where a daily gazette called Acta Diurna (Daily Events) was published. Attributed to Julius Caesar, it contained coverage of social and political events: elections, public appointments, government edicts, treaties, trials and executions, military news, births, marriages, and deaths. The Acta Diurna was written in manuscript and displayed in prominent places in Rome. A similar approach to publishing news was undertaken in China from the 6th to the 20th century.  

   

During the Middle Ages manuscript newsletters containing political and commercial information were circulated among the few people who could read. There were also occasional newsbooks, or pamphlets, detailing an unusual event such as a battle. Between 1590 and 1610 about 450 newsbooks were published in England alone.  

   

The first true newspapers were derived from commercial bulletins early in the 17th century. These bulletins circulated among the merchants of port cities such as Antwerp and Venice, and they carried news brought back by ship captains and crews from distant places. These early papers were called corantos, or "currents of news." They appeared first in Holland and shortly after in England and France. Other countries also soon had their rudimentary newspapers: Switzerland in 1610, Austria in 1620, Denmark in 1634, Sweden in 1645, and Poland in 1661. These were irregular publications, coming out when the news warranted it.  

   

No sooner did the first corantos begin carrying domestic and foreign news than censorship appeared. The first English publisher, Thomas Archer, was quickly imprisoned. Government management of news set in immediately. Domestic coverage was limited to trivialities. Serious political comment or coverage was forbidden. Foreign news was similarly censored in favor of government policy. Censorship lasted even longer on the Continent, and it carried over to the American colonies

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The first newspaper in British North America, Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick (1690), was immediately suppressed by the governor of Massachusetts. Official news was spread by means of proclamations and pamphlets or by newsletters and newspapers from London. The first regular newspaper in the colonies did not appear until 1704, and it was published by authority of the government. It was the weekly Boston News-Letter, published by John Campbell, the postmaster. Another paper replaced it in 1719: the Boston Gazette, published by postmaster James Franklin, an older brother of Benjamin Franklin. Two years later James Franklin started his own New-England ...

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