Blog #6 EOTO 1: First Newspaper

The first time the world ever saw something that resembled a newspaper was in 59BC, at the request of Julius Caesar, in order to inform citizens about important events, politics, and military affairs. However, the actual invention of the newspaper is more commonly attributed to Johann Carolus, a German author and publisher, who pioneered this form of weekly news media in 1605 with the help of Gutenburg's printing press. Carolus' work was titled, "Relations: Aller Furnemmen."

 

Another prominent figure in publishing at this time was Lucas Schulte, and his work was titles, "Aviso Relations over Zeitung." Both Carolus (pictured right) and Schulte (not pictured) demonstrated extreme bravery with their participation in publishing during a time of intense government persecution. Censorship was the norm, and freedom of the press was simply not a thing. (Side note: Censorship became an interesting topic to me in high school while reading Fahrenheit 451 *highly recommend*, and this article outlines how censorship has existed over the centuries- extra little reading if you are interested!)
These publications operated under very tight regulations put in place by the government and could only publish information that was deemed acceptable by the ones in power.

Due to the presence of censorship, these papers mostly discussed foreign affairs, like matters of war, but they could not report on local news and events. This changed in response to a paper written in 1641 that focused on more “domestic news” and sparked discussions that would eventually lead John Milton to author his famous work, Aeropagitica, that majorly contributed to the establishment of freedom of the press.In this new wave of freedom, publications were able to operate on bi-weekly, weekly and even daily schedules, making information more accessible than ever before. They were also allowed to publish more relevant info than what had been allowed in the past.

This expanded into other fields such as business, investing, and advertising. While this was absolutely considered a step in the right direction, the negative aspect of this was that these occupations became more and more dependent on publications to get the word out for them, and if there was any shift in publication their livelihoods were affected. Over time this has developed into the craziness that we know journalism to be today, which is a highly competitive race to be the next big story. We also know that bias comes into play and forms of censorship that we may not even be aware of at times.


Freedom of the press is absolutely essential to the world of newspaper publishing, but as the world moves away from print media and expands more into digital media, freedom of the press and speech overall will be more crucial to maintain than ever before. We have the opportunity to be the most informed generation, but of course with that comes the risks of misinformation and internet trolling, so we have the added responsibility of investigating what we are reading and caring whether or not we are being fed propaganda or accurate information. 

Sources: 

https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/4-2-history-of-newspapers/   

https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing/The-first-newspapers