The influence of politics on the development of newspapers between 1660 and 1855, at the example of 'The Times'

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, University of Rostock (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: Mass Media Communication: Newspapers and Magazines, 27 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Nowadays, there is a wide range of different newspapers, and most people see them as an important part of their everyday life. But newspapers as we know them today have only come into existence about three-hundred and fifty years ago. And although the liberty of the press at least in the countries of the European Union is today highly appraised, this has not always been the case. For a long time newspapers were a thorn in the flesh of governments, which thought that printed oppositional opinions threatened them. Therefore the governments tried to control newspapers tightly by enacting consequential laws. For years politics thus determined the development of newspapers. This term paper wants to deal with the influence of the English government on the development of newspapers between 1660 and 1855. This relates to London newspapers, if not stated otherwise. Also, the term newspaper is used for the printed product, the company or the owner, resp., and the journalists, if not stated otherwise. The term is also used for news printed before 1670, even though the term itself only occured in the English language during that year. After explaining prerequisites that were necessary for the emergence of modern newspapers in the first place, I will shortly look at the formation of newspapers before 1660, before I have a close look at laws established by the English government between 1662 and 1843. Then, I am going to compare selected parameters concerning the development of newspapers in different centuries. In the practical part I will analyse eight issues of The Times. I therefore chose the first January issues of a year, published with a time lag of ten years in each case. In this term paper I want to analyse how the English government influenced the development of newspapers, which consequences this influence had, and how these again showed up in the newspapers themselves. Several things were necessary for the development of modern newspapers. About 3,500 BC the Sumerians developed writing. Only through writing disciplines like education, literature, and science, as well as trade and commerce could emerge or take place in a broader sphere. While the Sumerians wrote on, or rather carved clay tablets, the Egyptians used papyrus reeds from around 2,200 BC onwards. Compared to other materials like clay, stone and wood, papyrus had the great advantage to write something spontaneously and fast, and to be transported easily because of its light weight.