The Printing Revolution

The advent of printing is the key to our modern consciousness, argued Marshall McLuhan. Printing was so important because it allowed mass communication. The Chinese were using wooden block presses as early as A.D 600 and had movable clay type byA.D1000.A simple movable metal type was even in use in Korea in the 13th century. These existed before 1446 when Gutenberg perfected his printing technology. Gutenberg was a goldsmith and metallurgist. He hit upon his idea of using metal type crafted from lead moulds in place of type made from wood or clay. The movable type was not only durable enough to print page after page but letters could be arranged and rearranged to make any message possible. And he was able to produce virtually identical copies. Also, Gutenberg, instead of using his invention to produce attractive artwork like the Korean metal mould printing, he used it to produce books for profit. He stressed quality over quantity; partly because of his reverence for the book he was printing- the Bible. He used the highest quality paper and ink and turned out far fewer volumes than he could have. The first Gutenberg Bible appeared in 1456. By the end of that century, 44 years later, printing operations existed in 12 Europeans countries, and the continent was flooded with 20 millions volumes of 7,000 titles in 35,000 different editions. With the discovery of the new world, most of the early settlers brought with them books that were oriented. However those early settlers did not find books central to their lives for a number of reasons. The first printing press arrived in North America in 1638, operated by a company called Cambridge press. Printing was limited to religious and government documents. The first book printed was The Whole Booke of Psalms, sometimes referred to as the Bay Psalm Book published in 1644. Publishing then required the permission of the colonial government before it could be done. Consequently, books continued to grow rapidly as printing technology improved.

Books

Development of Books

Development of books started with the invention of writing. Over 5,000 years ago, alphabets were developed independently in several places around the world. Ideogrammatic (picture-based) alphabets appeared in Egypt (as hieroglyphics), Sumerian (as cuneiform) and urban China. Ideogrammatic alphabets require a huge number of symbols to convey even the simplest idea. Their complex nature meant that only a very selected few, intellectual elites, could read or write. The Sumerians developed the cuneiform to meet their need of a more precise writing, other than face-to-face communication as those enjoyed in their international trade across the Europe, Africa and Asia. Sumerians cuneiform slowly expanded, using symbols to represent sounds rather than objects and ideas. Around 1800 B.C, these were the first elements of a syllable alphabet -an alphabet employing sequences of vowels and consonants, that is, words The syllable alphabet, aided by Semitic cultures, slowly developed, and eventually flowered in Greece around 800 B.C and was subsequently perfected. These alphabets of necessity were used for writing in trading, a development which helped their Greek city-states to thrive in business. However, a medium was necessary to carry this new form of communication. The Sumerians had used clay tablets, but the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans eventually employed Papyrus, rolls of sliced strips of reed pressed together. Around 100 B.C the Romans began using parchment, a writing material made from prepared animal skins and in A.D 105 mid level Chinese bureaucrat Ts’ai Lun perfected a paper making process employing a mixture of pressed mulberry tree bark, water, rags and a sophisticated frame for drying and stretching the resulting sheet of paper. With the emergence of literacy-the ability to effectively and efficiently comprehend and use written symbols-the social and cultural rules and structures of preliterate times began to change. However, communication was still quite limited, because writers could reach only those few literates who held their hand written scrolls or letters.

Newspaper

History of Newspaper

In Renaissance Europe handwritten newsletters circulated privately among merchants, passing along information about everything from wars and economic conditions to social customs and "human interest" features. The first printed forerunners of the newspaper appeared in Germany in the late 1400's in the form of news pamphlets or broadsides, often highly sensationalized in content. Some of the most famous of these report the atrocities against Germans in Transylvania perpetrated by a sadistic veovod named Vlad Tsepes Drakul, who became the Count Dracula of later folklore. In the English-speaking world, the earliest predecessors of the newspaper were corantos, small news pamphlets produced only when some event worthy of notice occurred. The first successively published title was The Weekly Newes of 1622. It was followed in the 1640's and 1650's by a plethora of different titles in the similar newsbook format. The first true newspaper in English was the London Gazette of 1666. For a generation it was the only officially sanctioned newspaper, though many periodical titles were in print by the century's end. In England the press developed under the authoritarian atmosphere of the early seventeenth century. Corantos, one-page news sheets were printed in English in Holland in 1620. English men Nathaniel Butter, Thomas Archer and Nicholas Bourne eventually began printing their own occasional news sheet. They stopped publishing in 1641, the same year that regular, daily account of local news started appearing in other news sheets. These true forerunners of daily newspaper were called diurnals. In Italy as early as 59 B.C, there was a publication of daily events bulletins called Acta Diurna (Actions of the day). They were posted in a public place for all to read. The earliest forerunner of the modern newspaper can be credited to the Chinese, with the publication of Tsing Pao at about 500 A.D. As the technological advances of printing made their way across Europe, newspapers cropped up frequently. The first newspaper published in Germany was found in 1609 by Egenolph Emmel. As at 1633 there were at least 16 newspapers in Germany. In 1704, postmaster Jelm Campell joined with Bartholomew Green to publish a newspaper called the Boston News-Letter. By 1721, The News-letter received competition from the News England Courant published by James Franklin, the older brother of Benjamin Franklin. The Courant was popular and controversial; it distinguished itself and carried forth numerous editorial crusades against both church and state. By 1729, in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin took over a family newspaper, started by Samuel keimer and renamed it as the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Virginia Gazette. The latter proved especially important because of Virginia’s influence on American independence. In 1734, John Peter Zenger began publishing the New York Weekly to counter Bradford’s newspaper, the New York Gazette who mostly expressed the government line. Zenger’s criticism of the colonial government got him into trouble, and he was later arrested and charged with seditious libel –publishing false and defamatory statements against the government. He, fortunately, won the case thus establishing “Truth as a defense Against Libel”. His lawyer was Andrew Hamilton. After the American independence, the government of U.S had to determine for itself just how free a press it was willing to tolerate .In 1790, the congress adopted the first 10 amendments to the constitution, called The Bills of Rights. The first Amendment reads! Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press …

Functions of Newspapers

Succinctly, newspaper helps to provide advantageous information on current affairs. Below are other advantages: 1. Newspapers help in doing genealogical searches for family and issues; 2 Newspapers alert people on upcoming events in sports, community activities (concerts, parades, etc.), and politics (gives one an edge when considering the total candidate for whom to vote); 3. Newspapers provide platform for speaking out on issues of public importance. This could make someone relevant in national discourse; 4. It provides relaxation through cartoons, puzzles, jokes etc; 5. Newspapers help in locating job opportunities, searches on what to buy and so on. Sambe (2005) highlights the following as functions of newspaper: 1. Newspapers inform readers objectively about what is happening in their community, country and the world; 2. Newspaper comments on the news in order to bring development into focus; 3. Newspaper provides the means whereby persons who want to sell goods and services can advertise their wares; 4. Newspaper campaigns for desirable civic projects and to help eliminate undesirable conditions; 5. Newspaper gives readers a portion of entertainment; 6. Newspaper serves readers as a friendly counselor information bureau, and champion of their rights.

Magazines

The Growth of Magazines

The first magazine was believed to have been started in 1704 by Daniel Defoe. It was a weekly periodical called the Review. Defoe’s Review was distinguished from the Newspapers of the era because he published features materials in addition to news. Two publications – the Tattler and Spectator emerged out of the journalistic style of Defoe. Tattler was published in 1709 by Richard Steele while the Spectator came up in March 1711 by both Steele and Joseph Addison. The Spectator grew in London and was the first magazine to make a contribution to literature. In the United States of America, Andrew Bradford began publishing American magazine in 1741,followed by Benjamin’s General magazine. Between 1741 and 1794, 45 new magazines appeared. Entrepreneurial printers with the intention to attract educated, cultural, moneyed gentlemen copied the successful London magazine. Subsequently, other magazines emerged. Some are the Saturday Evening Post, 1821; Harpers 1850, and At1antic Monthly 1857. Some factors that fuelled the growth of magazines include cheaper printing and growing literacy as well as the spread of social movement such as abolitionism and labour reform.