Degrees of Publicity. Handwritten Newspapers in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Abstract
My paper concerns the handwritten newspaper in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. The genre appeared in late
sixteenth century as part of a growing public news market,
which from the early seventeenth century onwards expanded
rapidly with the introduction of the printed newspapers. The
latter in parts replaced the handwritten one. However, at about
1700 the handwritten newspaper is still there, fulfilling specific
functions alongside its printed twin.
The question must therefore be what these functions were
and why costumers were willing to pay for a medium that was
much more expensive, although subject to the governments’
censorship in the same way as printed newspapers. The paper
argues for different degrees of publicity, which shaped the
public news market as well as private news correspondences.
In consequence, there were different news genres, tailor-made
for a general public or more specific groups of recipients. This
argument relies on contemporary tracts on the printed newspaper
as well as Swedish and Northern German collections of
handwritten newspapers.
Publisher
LIR. journal
Collections
View/ Open
Date
2011Author
Droste, Heiko
Keywords
publicity
early modern history
press history
newspapers
handwritten newspapers
news market
Publication type
article, peer reviewed scientific
Language
eng