Media History from Gutenberg

to the Digital Age Slides based on the Bloomsbury book by Bill Kovarik

Revolutions in

Communication

Chapter 1b -- Impact of printing -- #5

Web site & textbook

Textbook:

1st edition – 2011

2nd edition – 2016

http://www.revolutionsincommunication.com

Chapter 1 continued

Francis Bacon, 1620 We should notice the force,

effect, and consequences of inventions, which are nowhere more conspicuous than in those three which were unknown to the ancients; namely, printing, gunpowder, and the compass. For these three have changed the appearance and state of the whole world …

Printing effects •Standardized scripture • Critical reading

allowed challenge to church

•Standardized language • Helped form nation-

state

•Amplified new information and ideas • Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther become famous overnight

Printing consequences:

The Protestant Reformation 20 – 30 million killed in religious

wars in the 1500s-1600s period. Germany lost 30 % of population England Counter-Reformation,

1553 Queen Mary I (“Bloody Mary”), then Protestantism returns, Elizabeth I, 1559

Calls for tolerance contribute to the spirit of the Enlightenment.

Printing and the Reformation

Printing amplified Martin Luther’s dissent in a way that had never happened before.

His 95 Theses, published in Germany in 1517, circulated across Europe in less than a month.

Crowds surged around the printing houses, grabbing pages still wet from the press.

Three Bishops of Oxford,1555

Executed as Queen Mary I attempts to return Britain to Catholic Church. This was also in retaliation for executions by her father, Protestant king Henry VIII

“… Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” -- Bishop Hugh Latimer

Protestant Reformation

Anabaptist Anne Hendicks is one of tens of thousands executed in Amsterdam 1570s

Reaction to religious warsReligious tolerance slowly

emerges In France, Sebastian Casellio

(1515-1563) calls for freedom of conscience

In Britain, Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603) succeeds “Bloody” Mary and stops persecution of Catholics. “There is only one Christ, Jesus, one faith" she says. “All else is a dispute over trifles."

Impacts on science Printing spurred the exploration of physical and mental horizons. News of Columbus’ voyages spread rapidly with printing in the 1490s.Astronomical observatory of Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) included a printing shop to help spread new scientific knowledge – and prevent repression by the church

De re metallica A 1556 book by

Georgius Agricola (1494–1555)

Exploration of geology, mining and metallurgy, carefully illustrated.

Set a standard for scientific and technical books to come

First newspapers Handwritten by armies of scribes in

ancient China and Rome ◦Roman paper was called “Acta Diurna”

Newsletters common in Europe to promote commerce 1400s-1600s

First printed newspaper: 1605: Johann Carolus owned a book printing company in Strasbourg, France, grew tired of copying business newsletters by hand.

Press censorship by … Licensing of a printing

company itself; Prior restraint: pre-press

approval of each book or edition of a publication;

Taxation and stamps on regular publications; and

Prosecution for sedition against the government or libel of individuals.

English civil war John Milton

(1608-1674) ◦ The marketplace of

ideas“Who ever knew

truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?"

Areopagetica 1644 -- reference to the Athenian marketplace

English Enlightenment John Locke (1632-1704) People and government

have a social contract Government existed to serve the

people, not the other way around;

People have natural rights to life, liberty and property.

Tolerance was vital

French Enlightenment Francois Voltaire (1694-1778) – May disagree with what you say but will die defending your right to say it.

Also: Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) - Spirit of the Laws / Separation of powers (Legislative, executive, judicial)

Trial of John Peter Zenger

New York printer uses truth as a defense in seditious libel trial, 1734

American Enlightenment Benjamin Franklin Printers believe that

"when men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Public. When Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

John Wilkes Editor of North Briton, Member of Parliament

Newspaper censored, Wilkes convicted of seditious libel 1764

Goes into four years of exile in France, returns to fight for Parliamentary privilege

Ben Franklin and other American revolutionaries saw this as a bad omen for their hope of freedom in America.

Yes, he was that ugly … and yet he was amazingly popular

The Fourth Estate A reference to the growing power of the

press Whig party leader Edmund Burke in a 1787

speech to Parliament. Burke said that there were three “estates”

(walks of life) represented in Parliament:◦ The nobility (House of Lords); ◦ The clergy (Church of England);◦ And the middle class (House of Commons).

“But in the Reporters Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate, more important by far than they all.”

Enlightenment spreads Sweden was among the first to

abolish censorship with a law guaranteeing freedom of the press in 1766.

Denmark and Norway followed with their own law on freedom of the press in 1770.

American Enlightenment Thomas Jefferson Millions of innocent men,

women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.

American revolutionaries “These are the times that try men’s souls”— the words that turned the spark ofrebellion into a campaign forAmerican freedom emergedfrom the pen of Thomas Paine.

After independence, Painebecame involved in the French Revolution, then returned to the United States

Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, 1776

French revolution sparked by journalist Camille Desmolins

Camille Desmoulins On the storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789

“I was carried upon a table rather than allowed to mount it. Hardly had I got up on my feet when I saw myself surrounded by an immense crowd. Here is my short speech, which I shall never forget:

‘Citizens! There is not a moment to lose. . . .This evening all the Swiss and German battalions will sally forth from the Champs de Mars to cut our throats. We have only one recourse—to rush to arms.’ I had tears in my eyes, and spoke with a feeling that I have never been able to recapture, no less describe.”

The Terror

Tens of thousands of aristocrats and innocents executed by guillotine in France in the 1790s; Americans worry that their revolution could also devolve into The Terror

US passes Sedition Act 1798 Prohibited writing, printing, uttering "any false, scandalous and malicious writing

... against the government of the United States, or president of the United States,

... to bring them into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against them the hatred of the good people of the United States."

A stiff fine and prison term of two years were the punishments. Overall, 25 people were arrested.

Reaction to Sedition Act ”A reign of witches" – Jefferson

"It suffices for a man to be a philosopher, and to believe that human affairs are susceptible of improvement, and to look forward, rather than backward to the Gothic ages, for perfection, to mark him as an anarchist, disorganizer, atheist, and enemy of the government."

Virginia and Kentucky assemblies pass Resolutions condemning Sedition Act

Doctrine of “nullification” and states rights

Partisan press US – Britain William Cobbett was called “a kind offourth estate in the politics of the country.”

Published Porcupine’s Gazette in Philadelphia, 1790s and the Weekly Political Register in England 1800s

Crusaded against cruelty, poverty and corruption. In 1809 imprisoned two years for seditious libel. Fled back to US in 1817 but then returned in 1819 to continue crusading. Cobbett attacked the “smothering system” that led to the LudditeRiots and vowed to expose Britain’s “service and corrupt press” that had become an instrument in the “delusion, the debasement and theenslavement of a people.”

US partisan papers Bitter partisanship aligned with John

Adams’ Federalist party or Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic- Republican party

Depended on patronage and printing contracts for basic income

Business model would change with Penny Press revolution in 1830s

Not all newspapers were partisan. ◦Niles Weekly Register, published in Baltimore

1811 - 1848, forerunner of modern press, guided by principal of “magnanimous disputation”

Partisan press France In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte assumed power

Freedom of the press ended, and widespread system of censorship was putin place by 1808

Number of newspapers in Paris dwindled from hundreds to only 4 by 1811.Censorship was lifted following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, then imposed by French authorities, and occasionally lifted again in cycles over the next century.

What was it like to work in a printing chapel?

See the web site for the book Revolutions in Communication

Long hours, low pay, very strenuous, but also interesting, a place for literate people, the Creatures of Prometheus.

Life in a print shop Upper and lower case Mind “p”s and “q”s Composing “on the stick” By the same token Out of sorts Playing quadrats Getting a washing Spirit of the chapel

Review: Questions Where does paper come from? What is parchment? What is papyrus? Who invented printing? How did steam printing affect the

industry? How did rotary presses lead to

stereotyping? When was mechanical typesetting

invented?

Review: People & Technology Cai Lun, Henry Fourdrinier, Bi Sheng, Johannes Gutenberg Friedrich Koenig, Otto

Mergenthaler Rene Higgonnet, Louis Moyroud ,

Vannevar Bush

Review: Book people Martin LutherFrancis BaconJohn MiltonVoltaireJohn LockeThomas PaineJohn WilkesCamille DesmoulinsWilliam CobbettBenjamin Franklin

ReviewTerms: logographic, codex,

scriptoria, incunabula, printing chapel

Ideas: Partisan press, sedition act, religious tolerance, Fourth Estate

Major trends: Protestant reformation, Enlightenment, English Civil War, American & French revolutions

Next Each drop in price / increase in

power and speed extended the printing revolution

Stagnation in the 1870-1970 period led to complacency in publishing

Publishers missed digital curve in the road and lost markets

For more, read the RinC web site: Who killed the American newspaper?

Next: Chapter 2 The Industrial Press