Evolution of Newspapers: From Elitist to Accessible

When newspapers first appeared in England around 1800, they had little penetration among the people.

There were three main reasons. 80% of the population in England at that time were agricultural laborers living in rural areas.

1. Few people could read at that time.
2. Few laborers could afford newspaper subscriptions.
3. Information in the newspapers at that time was mostly irrelevant to the workers, such as world affairs in Europe and stock prices of the East India Company.

Newspapers at that time were not important to workers because they were expensive and they did not know what was written in them.

In that sense, newspapers back then were like VR goggles for us today, right? Some people are familiar with it, but for the general public, it is expensive and they don't know what it will be used for in the future. Sorry, I am not criticizing VR goggles. (Sorry, I am not criticizing VR goggles.)

Sorry, I'm not criticizing VR goggles.

As you can see, newspapers were initially read only by a few businessmen and capitalists, but over time, they gradually spread to the general public.

The reason is almost the opposite of the three reasons why newspapers did not spread as widely as they did earlier.

1. The number of people who could read increased.
2. Taxes on newspapers became cheaper and more accessible to the general public.
3. Illustrations made it easier to read (people who cannot read can now read along with the illustrations).
4. People's favorite "shocking incidents" are now published in the newspaper.

I think the illustrations were quite a change. Nowadays, it is common for newspapers to have illustrations (pictures), but imagine a newspaper full of text without pictures, it would take a lot of effort to read it. LOL.

It seems that the illustrations often depicted shocking murders along with the text of that article, and readers were also looking for extreme incidents for their newspapers. Articles like "Such a brutal murder!" was commonplace, and the actual incidents were reported in a heaping heap. To top it all off, there were articles that were all made up stories.

It seems that from this time on, a structure similar to that of today's mass media was established to convey information in a stimulating and emotionally-charged manner.

References

• 『朝日百科 世界の歴史 10 ー 19 世紀ー』 1991 年 朝日新聞社 D-722