The history and context of journalism- lecture 5

Lecture 5 of the history and context of journalism aspect of this course really brought together all of our learning so far so that it was placed in a timeline of events, allowing us to see the connection between philosophy and its influence on journalism. It also showed us how journalism has changed from early journalism to modern day journalism.

Firstly we were given the concept of journalism as business- turning information into money. This was the reason that journalism began, and is still a key aspect of journalism today.

The first sign of any recorded writing is the starting point for journalism in 600bc with Chinese pictographic script and then 200 years later with Egyptian hieroglyphics. However, key to journalism history and to the progression of humanity was the printing press in 1440 as a way of recording discoveries, allowing them not to be forgotten and therefore resulting in human knowledge slipping back into a dark age, as information could be passed onto future generations.  This was seen in the resulting years as inventions and knowledge began to quickly increase with the mass printing of bibles in 1517 as a result of the printing press. Not only did the printing press affect the way in which journalism would develop it would also affect religion, as books such as Foxes book of martyrs were printed.

As the English civil war developed between the Catholics and Protestants, Spain was the main dominant power in Europe, and parliament is eventually victorious after a brutal war which eventually allowed the restoration of a monarchy without tyranny. With this the return of John Locke, allowed an open mind which again allowed journalism to begin with the first newspaper- The daily Courant.

This is where the concept of business to make money really begins, with Daniel Defoe; known as the father of journalism, created commercial journalism with trading and commercial opportunities which included fictional ideas about the new world. This was the birth of journalism in the form of a newspaper; however it is very different to that of today news.

1731 brings us to the birth of photojournalism, with work such as ‘Gin Alley’ by Hogarth. This again is extremely different to that of photojournalism today, but work like this allowed journalism to develop into what it is today. Putting these pieces of history into a timeline, allows and understanding of the history and the context of how and why journalism today is written how it is today and therefore this lecture was extremely important and interesting to allow all the information received so far this semester to be put into context.