The Importance of the Press
The Importance of the Press
The newspaper is a powerful medium. It is powerful because it has the ability to influence the way that people view the world, as well as their opinion of what they see. In peaceful times (or in times of oppression, for sometimes they can appear to be happening at the same moment) the press is usually one of the instruments used by the state in order to maintain the status quo. However, during times of political unrest it is often the press who becomes the major antagonist in the fight against the government. Why is this so? Why does the press get so deeply involved in, not just the reporting of, but the instigating and propagating of political change? In order to properly answer this question there are several other key ideas and questions which must first be examined. To understand the nature of the press ' involvement in political change, one must initially understand the nature of political change in its own right. In this vein, the first section of the paper is dedicated to this investigation. An examination of the motives behind revolution will be given in order to provide a framework for the second part of the paper, which will look at the involvement of the press during revolutionary times in more specific terms. The French revolution of 1789 will be used as a backdrop for this inquiry. There are many different types of political movements, and accordingly there are many different reasons for these movements to occur. Value-oriented and norm-oriented movements deal with matters of social and political concern, but do so in the setting of the already existing political and social structures. Revolutionary movements seek to make fundamental changes to society in order to establish a completely new political and social order.1 The distinction being that the first aims to make subtle changes to society from within, while the latter 's aim is to make drastic changes to society by getting rid of the principles that
The newspaper is a powerful medium. It is powerful because it has the ability to influence the way that people view the world, as well as their opinion of what they see. In peaceful times (or in times of oppression, for sometimes they can appear to be happening at the same moment) the press is usually one of the instruments used by the state in order to maintain the status quo. However, during times of political unrest it is often the press who becomes the major antagonist in the fight against the government. Why is this so? Why does the press get so deeply involved in, not just the reporting of, but the instigating and propagating of political change? In order to properly answer this question there are several other key ideas and questions which must first be examined. To understand the nature of the press ' involvement in political change, one must initially understand the nature of political change in its own right. In this vein, the first section of the paper is dedicated to this investigation. An examination of the motives behind revolution will be given in order to provide a framework for the second part of the paper, which will look at the involvement of the press during revolutionary times in more specific terms. The French revolution of 1789 will be used as a backdrop for this inquiry. There are many different types of political movements, and accordingly there are many different reasons for these movements to occur. Value-oriented and norm-oriented movements deal with matters of social and political concern, but do so in the setting of the already existing political and social structures. Revolutionary movements seek to make fundamental changes to society in order to establish a completely new political and social order.1 The distinction being that the first aims to make subtle changes to society from within, while the latter 's aim is to make drastic changes to society by getting rid of the principles that
Bibliography: Le Bon, Gustave. The Psychology of Revolution. USA: Fraser Publishing Company, 1968. Censor, Jack Richard, Prelude to Power, The Parisian radical Press: 1789-1791, Maryland: the Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976 Church, Canada: D.C. Heath and Company, 1974 Darton, Robert and Daniel Roche, Revolution in Print: The Press in France 1775- 1800, USA: New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox & Tilden Foundations, 1989 Guy, James John, People, Politics & Government, Toronto: Maxwell Macmillan Canada Inc., 1990. Osler, Andrew. News, The Evolution of Journalism in Canada. Missisauga: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1993. Popkin, Jeremy D. Revolutionary News, The Press in France 1789-1799. USA: Duke University Press, 1990. Footnotes 1James John Guy, People, Politics and Government, (Toronto, 1990), p 1968), pp. 162-3 4Ibid., p. 28. 5Andrew M. Osler, News, The Evolution of Journalism in Canada, (Canada, 1993), p News The Press in France, 1789-1799, (USA, 1990), pp. 19-20. 7Ibid., p. 22-3.