Emergence of Print Media Around the World

EMERGENCE OF PRINT MEDIA AROUND THE WORLD  
As if the world was just waiting a breakthrough in the printing process, people from advance countries started exploiting the new invention to vent their feeling on both religious as well as secular matters.  
Next hundred years saw a change the world had perhaps not witnessed in the previous thousand years. More opinions were brought forward, the role of gatekeepers in the world of information was reduced considerably and new idea-exchange programs started getting very popular all over.  
Though it was not the way it appears today, the pioneer work in print as a medium to spread information was started first by irregular pamphleteering but soon assumed a very formal form of regular publications during which time tens of thousands of magazines, books, newspapers and newsletters change the landscape in urban markets across the world.  
A glance to early publications 1500s ---- Newssheets appear in Venice, Italy 1605 ----- Relations, France 1690 ----- Public Occurrences, first U.S. Newspaper 1704 ----- John Campbell publishes the Boston News-Letter 1721 ----- The New-England Courant, first printed in 1721, landed publisher James Franklin in jail. 1733 ----- Peter Zenger is put in jail for New York Weekly content, but wins case against New York for seditious libel 1798 ----- Alien and Sedition Acts forbid criticism of key government officials. Repealed in 1800. 1830s ---- Penny press introduces era of mass communication 1864 ----- Newspapers start using telegraph to transmit news 1848 ----- Associated Press founded 1800s ---- Linotype machines speed up typesetting by making possible the automatic casting of entire lines of type 1890s ---- Period of yellow journalism. This is followed by era of Jazz Journalism.  
Print comes to South Asia For at least one hundred years people in subcontinent remained unaware of the printing technology. They, however, had some idea of printed material when ships would come from UK and bring some newspapers and magazines generally for the Englishmen serving in subcontinent.  
In the subcontinent the print media surfaced because of the foreign rulers. India did not know about printing or mass communication by the middle of 18th century. Since the influence of the English rulers was more in the South India, most early papers also appeared in the southern cities before the print medium came to western and northern parts.  
Colonial journalism The history of media in united India is colored by the colonial experience. William Bolts, an exemployee of the British East India Company attempted to start the first newspaper in India in 1776. Bolts had to beat a retreat under the disapproving gaze of the Court of Directors of the Company.  
Bengal 
The Hickey's Bengal Gazette or the Calcutta General Advertiser was started by James Augustus Hickey in 1780 and is regarded as the first regular publication from the Indian soil. The Gazette, a two-sheet newspaper, specialized in writing on the private lives of the Sahibs of the Company. He dared even to mount scurrilous attacks on the Governor-General, Warren Hastings', wife, which soon landed him in hot waters. 

Hickey was sentenced to a 4 months jail term and Rs.500 fine, which did not deter him. After a bitter attack on the Governor-General and the Chief Justice, Hickey was sentenced to one year in prison and fined Rs.5000, which finally drove him to penury. These were the first tentative steps of journalism in India.  
Calcutta B. Messink and Peter Reed were pliant publishers of the India Gazette, unlike their infamous predecessor. The colonial establishment started the Calcutta Gazette. It was followed by another private initiative the Bengal Journal. The Oriental Magazine of Calcutta Amusement, a monthly magazine made it four weekly newspapers and one monthly magazine published from Calcutta, now Kolkata.  
Madras (Chennai) The Madras Courier was started in 1785 in the southern stronghold of Madras, which is now called Chennai. Richard Johnson, its founder, was a government printer. Madras got its second newspaper when, in 1791, Hugh Boyd, who was the editor of the Courier quit and founded the Hurkaru.   
Tragically for the paper, it ceased publication when Boyd died within a year of its founding. It was only in 1795 that competitors to the Courier emerged with the founding of the Madras Gazette followed by the India Herald. The latter was an "unauthorised" publication, which led to the deportation of its founder Humphreys. The Madras Courier was designated the purveyor of official information in the Presidency.  
In 1878, The Hindu was founded, and played a vital role in promoting the cause of Indian independence from the colonial yoke. Its founder, Kasturi Ranga Iyengar, was a lawyer, and his son, K Srinivasan assumed editorship of this pioneering newspaper during for the first half of the 20th century. Today this paper enjoys the highest circulation in South India, and is among the top five nationally.  
Bombay Bombay, now Mumbai, surprisingly was a late starter - The Bombay Herald came into existence in 1789. Significantly, a year later a paper called the Courier started carrying advertisements in Gujarati. The first media merger of sorts: The Bombay Gazette, which was started in 1791, merged with the Bombay Herald the following year. Like the Madras Courier, this new entity was recognized as the publication to carry "official notifications and advertisements".  
'A Chronicle of Media and the State', by Jeebesh Bagchi in the Sarai Reader 2001 is a handy timeline on the role of the state in the development of media in India for more than a century. Bagchi divides the timeline into three 'ages'. The Age of Formulation, which starts with the Indian Telegraph Act in 1885 and ends with the Report of the Sub-Committee on Communication, National Planning Committee in 1948.  
Urdu Press In 1822 the Persian weekly Jam-e-Jahan Numa first time published in Urdu. Some time it publishes in Urdu, some time in Persian and some time in both the languages. During the earlier days of journalism newspapers were either weeklies or biweeklies, none of them was a daily. On January 14, 1850 Munshi Harsukh Rai started weekly Kohinoor. With a circulation of only 350 it was the largest circulated newspaper of that time. The circulation of other newspapers on that time was only 100 to 200.   
Urdu Guide was the first daily newspaper, which was started by Maulvi Kabeeruddin from Kolkata in 1858. In the very same year as a second daily Roznamcha-e-Punjab started from Lahore. As a first Urdu daily of Bihar, Dini Bihar started in 1876 from Arah district. Zameendar, which was the best newspaper of that time, was started in 1903 from Lahore. It was the first newspaper, which used the news from erstwhile news agencies. This newspaper highly supported the freedom struggle. At that time the circulation of Zameendar was 30,000. Before Zameendar, in 1884 Munshi Mehar Baksh started a morning (Naseem-e-Subah) and an evening newspaper (Sham-e-Wisal). Maulvi Saiful Haq started the daily Rahbar-e-Hind from Lahore in 1885. In 1902 Maulvi Sanaullah Khan started the weekly Watan which regularly published for 33 years. Maulana Muhammed Ali Jauhar started Naqueeb-e-Hamdard in 1912. Later it called only Hamdard. In the very same year Maulana Abul Kalam Azad started Al-Hilal. After Zameendar it was the largest circulated

newspaper .On March 20, 1919 Mahashai Krishn started Partap. Partap was the first newspaper, which started supplements. 

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