The age of journalism

POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS (images are missing)
THE AGE OF JOURNALISM
THE AUGUSTAN AGE
First part of the 18th century
• internal stability and prosperity
• technological progress in the field ofindustry and agriculture
• expanding colonial empire
• flourishing economy and trade

A NEW MIDDLE CLASS
• In towns: a large and wealthy merchant and manufacturing class (traders, merchants,entrepeneurs, bankers)
• In the countryside: big landowners
…and A NEW LOWER MIDDLE CLASS
• shopkeepers, craftsmen, rich farmers, clerks

In the 18th century the reading public increased remarkablydue to:
• the wish of the middle class, among whom women in particular, to educate themselves increased literacy
• the improved printing and communicating systems (The Dictionary of theEnglish Language by Samuel Johnson)
• the circulating libraries (one book, one penny)
• the widespread desire to be informed which made people buy books and other publications


led to the boom ofjournalism and the gathering in the popular coffee-houses to read the newspapers and the literary periodicals.
THE COFFEE HOUSES
§ Appeared in London at the end of the 17th century
§ Meeting placesfor the well-to-do middle class and aristocrats
§ While sipping tea, chocolate, coffee, they could exchange gossip, could read or hear the latest news, discuss current affairs or do business deals
§Also called “penny universities” (1p was the cost for listening to writers, politicians, bankers, artists and adventurers. 1p was also the cost of a newspaper)
§ Trend setting places (tastes in artand literature)


The two most important periodicals of the Augustan Age
• “ I resolve to have something which may be of Entertainment to the Fair Sex, in honour of whom I have invented the Title ofthis Paper”(Richard Steel)
• “I shall endeavour to enliven Morality with Wit, and to temper Wit with Morality” (Joseph Addison, introduction to the first issue)

SIR RICHARD STEELE
• a Whig...