Newspapers remain as primary source of information for people these days, despite the growing popularity of the Internet. It ranks third in a Pew Research survey conducted last 2010 following television and Internet.
But despite being a part of our daily life, little is known in the history of this material.
It all began 5 centuries ago. European merchants would hand out newsletters to people that contained information about the weather, wars, and other interesting stories. At the time, these newsletters were mostly written by hand. It wasn’t until the 1400s that the first newspaper was printed in Germany. It was created in the form of news pamphlets which often contained exaggerated contents.
America was way behind in
newspaper creation. The first American newspaper called Publick
Occurrences appeared in 1690 in Boston. However, printing of this
newspaper was immediately restrained due to unauthorized publication. It
remained forgotten since then until in 1845 when a copy of the newspaper was
found in the British Library.
In 1704, the Boston News-Letter was created and became the first successful
newspaper in America. Later on, two new papers were introduced in Philadelphia
and New York, and when the Revolutionary
War started, there were already two dozen papers issued at all colonies.
During
that time, printing newspapers was a long and arduous task. The invention of
the printing press by Johann Gutenberg in 1450, however, changed that, and the
printing task was shortened. Still, it remained laborious since rearrangement
of the letters was required when a new page needed to be printed.
Years
later, in the early 1800s, the Gutenberg press was enhanced with the use of
steam-powered press. This made the process more cost-efficient, thus, the term
“penny
press”. In 1884, the linotype press was introduced making the printing
process much quicker. A decade or more later, computers were introduced that led
to newspaper printing becoming much more advanced.
There
may be a threat to publishing newspapers these days, but one truth shall
remain: newspapers have helped shaped the printing and publication
history.
It's funny how much of the ancient culture of exaggeration in mass media still remains today. But it's sad. Mass media is the number influence in the society. I just hope we find a way to alter what has been trending.
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