Mediation and media; change and reaction

1. Mediation and media; change and reaction

2. The story so far: journalism • 17th c for a brief period, then clamp down • Early 18th c in new social and political order: change and reaction: stability after 17th c • Public sphere • Magazines • Addison and commerce: • Mercantilist capitalism with public debt • Sam Johnson: • Grub Street • Paternoster Row

3. The story so far: London • Roman north of the river • City (Money and trade), Westminster (law and government), Southwark (rock and roll) • Sucking people in • The new City rebuilt after Great Fire • Centre of national capital flows • Great port

4. The story so far: your points • The individual and Addison • Blue Plaques • Travel: Johnson quote • The importance of place and time • Communicate content to the “you” in the reader

5. The story so far: PR • Fashion + celebrities • Crafting the story for the brand • Getting the spin on the dress

6. William Hazlitt (1778-1830) • Reason and emotion • From a radical family • Impact of the change of the first phase of the French Revolution • Formation of left and right • A republic • A rational state • Rights of people

7. Hazlitt • To essay: to assay – the way up • Radical and romantic poets • Remained a radical • On utilitalirans: Bentham’s view is like a map, correct in its form but without colour and relief • Attack on Tories: A Tory is... • In death: “He lived to see his deepest wishes gratified as he expressed them in his Essay ‘On the Fear of Death.’ Viz.: ‘To see the downfall of the Bourbons and some prospect of good to mankind.”

9. London • The docking facilities of the City were at breaking point and there was a lot of pilfering. • West India merchants proposed new docks east of London in 1793. • Construction started 1799; finished 1806 • High profits and spread London out east

10. 1799 1880 1805 1805 1855 1807 1921 1828 1868

13. Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

14. Dickens • Household Words etc • Observed the impact of the industrial revolution: Hard Times 1854 • The reaction to the industrial revolution • The Great Exhibition 1851

15. Observed life in London: Oliver Twist 1838 • Told the rising middle class in his journalism “something must be done” • Novels as journalism: chapters published in magazines

16. Imperial London • 1858 First trans-Atlantic cable: broke after a month • London: the capital and the manufacturing: • Cable made in London: Greenwhich • Great Eastern: London • The Victorian Internet • Coordinate empire

18. Crimean war: 1854-1856 • Ottoman Empire (Turkey) crumbling • Russia expanding west, south and east • UK, France & Turkey v Russia • Fought in north of Black Sea • Telegraph line from Marseilles

19. Crimea coverage • William Howard Russell (1820-1907) The Times

20. The Battle of Balaclava in The Times 14 November 1854 in The Mammoth Book of Journalism • “Valour..versus a savage and barbarian enemy.” • Reporter as observer: I saw this...

21. Crimea coverage • “And now occurred the melancholy catastrophe which fills us all with sorrow” • A table of losses ends the piece • Went on to report Indian Mutiny, US Civil War, Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and Zulu War. • The Times: 700,000 circulation

22. Committed observer: “a savage and barbarian enemy”…. “under my own eyes”…. “A braver soldier than Capt Nolan the army did not possess.” • Writing for the elite as literacy low and price high • Changed policy on hospitals and war • Also image reporting...

26. London Illustrated News: 1842-1989

27. Not a Profession • Entry criteria: you can do it and you are cheap • Discipline: from the employer/editor • Exit: fired • Managed to make themselves professions in the 19th century: • Doctors • Dentists • Civil engineers etc

28. The ethic • Doctors: do not harm • Lawyers: represent your client • Journalists: get the story; entertain • PRs: represent your client’s best interests

29. George Newnes (1851-1910)

31. George Newnes 1851-1910 • Congregationalist, Midlands, Liberal, Philanthropist • Tit-Bits 1881, moved to London 1885 • The Strand 1891-1950 • The Million 1892 • Country Life 1897 • Wide World Magazine 1898-1965 • Ladies’ Field 1898

32. The Strand 1891 - 1950 • Middle and lower upper class: “confirmed their values and fostered and celebrated their achievements” Jackson George Newnes Ashgate 2001 p88 • Monthly: 6d (£1.96 RPI) • Short stories, reporting, profiles, interviews, humour • A-political; status quo • “An editorial bias in favour of the timeless as against the timely” Pound, Mirror of the Century, Heinemann, 1966, p64 • The social space of upper-middle class literary world Jackson p102 • 300K copies of 1st issue: 400K by 1896

33. The Strand • Mary Spencer-Warren • Subjects: Royalty, Royal Palaces and the upper classes • Regular contributor

34. The Strand 1891 - 1950 • Middle and lower upper class: “confirmed their values and fostered and celebrated their achievements” Jackson George Newnes Ashgate 2001 p88 • Monthly: 6d (£1.96 RPI) • Short stories, reporting, profiles, interviews, humour • A-political; status quo • “An editorial bias in favour of the timeless as against the timely” Pound, Mirror of the Century, Heinemann, 1966, p64 • The social space of upper-middle class literary world Jackson p102 • 300K copies of 1st issue: 400K by 1896

35. Wide World Magazine 1898-1965 Truth is stranger than fiction

36. Wednesday • Frontline Club • 13 Norfolk Place, W2 • Paddington