Blogging: stuck in the 1800’s
May 23rd, 2008 by Benjamin KuoI came across this interesting description of pre-1800’s, early American newspapers reading a book on the newspaper publishing industry last night, and couldn’t help but chuckling on how it pretty much describes the blogging world today:
News in early American newspapers..was written in a literary or letter style far different from the style found in newspapers today… Opinions were regularly found in the news columns, and articles and commentaries were often filled with invective and accusations that are shocking by comparison to today’s news and editorial columns. Significant amounts of space were devoted to intellectual discussions of social and political ideas and concepts…
The primary reason for these characteristics was that papers were highly personal communication vehicles for their publishers. Often the only “staff” of the paper was the publisher, who wriote most of the material alone or solicited it from friends and then set the type and printed the paper, usually only with the assistance of a young apprentice. Newspapers were seen as devices for conveying information but also for carrying out the social and political purposes of the publisher.
(from “The Newspaper Publsihing Industry” by Robert G. Picard and Jeffrey H. Brody).
