Essay #1 - The Printing Press as an Agent of Change （ class of media history）

Media Studies 111

2 March 2020

Power on Paper: How Print Changed Colonial Expansion by European States

The advent of print in Europe during the 1400s heightened the quest for European

imperial power in the 15th century and beyond. Since it brought new ways to represent global

authority, printing offered an exciting opportunity for states seeking global domination. As

governments recognized the possibilities of print, their desire and justification for colonial

expansion developed dramatically. The ability to permanently fix cultural superiority, geographic

claims, and national identity as a result of print offered new ways for state powers to legitimize

and represent colonial expansion.

The historical agents tied to colonial expansion were certain European state governments

hoping to extend their power abroad. This essay will draw on the expansionist activities of the

Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, and English states. Many explorers from

these empires were sent by their nation’s rulers to survey and conquer foreign land. For example,

the Spanish Empire sent its first explorers in the late 15th century with the task of imperial

conquest in the Americas. The Portuguese Empire, on the other hand, had its sights set on West

Africa, India, Brazil, Malacca, China, and Japan. The Dutch East India Company, an

international trade organization formed in the Netherlands, was a state-like institution that

pursued colonial ambitions through corporate control of regions abroad. Although colonial

expansion existed before print, scribal culture merely allowed for temporary and easily damaged

delineations of state control. Meanwhile, the advent of print presented new and more lasting

ways to document governance. As “[ajccounts of the early voyages were read and published

around Europe[,]” the “potential of the unknown lands soon began to excite [...] Europe’s ruling

powers” (Pettegree 281). All of these states and institutions wanted global domination, and print

would allow that power to be represented on durable and widely disseminated paper.

Specifically, typographical fixity was what gave imperial powers an exciting new avenue

for representing world domination. By typographical fixity, I am referring to the ability of print

to fix languages, interpretations, and representations in place, as opposed to the mutability of

scribal texts. According to Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, who coined the term, “archetypes were

converted into stereotypes” once printing made it possible to maintain certain representations

over long periods of times. (Eisenstein, “Some Features,” 99). Prior to print, evidence of

nation-building could exist only in handwritten works, which were too vulnerable to change,

loss, or destruction to serve as accurate permanent records. Moreover, written works were not

widely available because producing multiple copies was labor intensive. Even when manuscript

texts were replicated, they were too “liable to get corrupted after being copied over the course of

time” (Eisenstein, “The Emergence,” 8). For state governments, typographical fixity allowed

geographic claims, cultural superiority, and national identity to be fixed in place, which

intensified and justified colonial expansion.

Stereotypes about uncivilized native peoples spread through print provided state

governments with justifications for colonial expansion as a civilizing mission. Before empires

acted on imperialist ambitions, they were already informed by printed tropes about

non-European peoples. The 1355 travelogue titled Travels by John de Mandeville included

“exotic [descriptions] of the marvels of the East[,]” featuring fantastic imagery of the

cannibalism and nudity found there (Pettegree 282). Thanks to the advent of print, Mandeville’s

travelogue “remained a steady bestseller” that “went through multiple editions in almost every

European language during the sixteenth century” (Pettegree 282-283). These kinds of sensational

depictions continued and were used by European powers to justify sending explorers to civilize

the natives while gaining colonial territory. The Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci’s travels

were detailed in his 1504 book Mundus novus (Pettegree 282). Vespucci emphasized the

cannibalistic nature of the people he encountered, mentioning that he “met a man who had eaten

300 people” (Pettegree 282). These shocking portrayals of foreign territories were spread in

Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Cologne, with later reprints spreading to France and more parts of

Germany (Pettegree 282). Another example of the stereotypes about colonial regions fixed

through print is in the French explorer Andre Thevet’s depiction of Brazil in Les singularitez de

la France antarctique (Pettegree 283). Although The vet barely experienced the indigenous

people of Brazil, he heavily relied on ancient tropes in describing their “thrillingly exotic and yet

reassuringly familiar” culture (Pettegree 284). All of these travelogues drew on stereotypes about

native peoples and cultures fixed in place by print. As printed depictions of the barbarous natives

and their primitive lifestyles proliferated throughout Europe, state governments were able to

justify their colonial expansion in these “uncivilized” territories.

While printed representations of indigenous culture legitimized European imperialism,

the advent of printed maps also fixed state expansion in place. One cartographer named Ptolemy

published his maps in a collection titled Geography in the 15th century (Pettegree 287). Once

printing grew in popularity, his “revised and reissued” maps were printed throughout the

sixteenth century, fixing his geographic interpretations in place (Pettegree 287). The publication

of his maps initiated a revival of map-making throughout Europe. Aiming to “lay claim to newly

discovered territories,” state governments were eager to encourage cartography (Pettegree 288).

Although the Spanish and Portuguese empires initially utilized manuscript maps to keep their

trade routes confidential, the Dutch East India Company used print to its advantage (Berg 139).

This state-like institution lacked the resources of other empires, but it “had printers, engravers

and cartographers who could disseminate the latest geographical information via maps, globes

and atlases” (Berg 139). These maps soon served as indicators of the company’s imperial

ambitions and success. Specifically, the descriptions of colonial territories in Lucas Janszoon

Waghenaer’s Spieghel der zeevaerdt from 1584 was a “clear indication that the Dutch were

setting sail for ever more distant horizons” (Berg 139). In other words, the use of print by the

Dutch was a way to show off imperial ambitions. Although the Dutch were reluctant “to actually

settle and physically hold the lands they visited[,]” they used printed maps to emphasize their

territorial claims. In addition to geographic advantage, the Dutch also represented their

technological superiority through maps “peppered with no less than nine Dutch ships, including

one flying the colors of the city of Amsterdam” (Weislogel 36). As seen in maps created by the

Dutch, the advent of print generated new ways of depicting state power abroad. Printed maps

became another avenue for state governments to fix territorial claims in place and establish

superiority over competing empires.

Just as print allowed state powers to portray and justify their colonial expansion, it also

made it possible for European governments to strengthen national identities. Since printed travel

accounts spread tropes about the savage peoples in colonial lands, European empires formed

identities based on cultural supremacy. One example is Johannes Boemus’s descriptive

geography work titled Omnium gentium mores, which provides reports about people in Europe,

Africa and Asia (Pettegree 283). Boemus describes the “customs and mores of distant peoples”

only to “contrast them with the cultured and civilised core of Christian Europe” (Pettegree 283).

Several “historio-topographical works of the sixteenth century” use this kind of cultural

nationalism to establish state identities marked by superiority over colonized regions (Pettegree

283). While descriptive maps spread notions of cultural dominance, geographic maps also

created new notions of national identity. The ability to fix state boundaries made it possible for

recognizable national identities on printed maps. In England, cartographers “[working] under the

protection of the English crown” printed atlases that fixed county and state borders in place

(Pettegree 289). One English cartographer published an atlas of county maps in 1579 which

“made a material contribution to consolidating a sense of place in the English county

community” (Pettegree 289). In England and other European states, printing allowed for the

emergence of national identity through borders on maps. Geographic boundaries and cultural

nationalism were two effects of print that made states form national identities. With newly

strengthened and fixed national identities, European governments could legitimize their pursuit

of colonial territory.

Print drastically changed the way state governments conducted colonial expansion. By

fixing stereotypes about colonized territories and peoples in place, print justified territorial

conquest. In addition, the ability to fix geographic claims through printed maps offered states and

state-like institutions a new method of highlighting imperial successes. Finally, state

governments emphasized their nation’s cultural superiority and geographic borders through print,

establishing fixed national identities that drove expansion abroad. In every case, the emergence

of print and its typographical fixity offered European imperial powers new methods of justifying

and depicting colonial expansion. After the advent of print, European powers had the

unprecedented ability and motivation to legitimize and boast their colonial successes.

Works Cited

Berg, Thomas Reinertsen. “Venturing Out” in Theater o f the World: The Maps that made

History, pp. 134-165.

Eisenstein, Elizabeth. “The Emergence of Print Culture in the West” in The Printing Revolution

in Early Modern Europe, pp. 3-12.

Eisenstein, Elizabeth. “Some Features of Print Culture” in The Printing Revolution in Early

Modern Europe, pp. 46-101.

Pettegree, Andrew. “Science and Exploration” in The Book in the Renaissance, pp. 273-296.

Weislogel, Andrew. “Macrocosm/Microcosm: The Dutch Worldview from the Quarterdeck and

the Curiosity Cabinet” in The New and Unknown World, pp. 31-45.

Media Studies 111

2 March, 2020

The Power of the Printed Page: Martin Luther and Religious Protest

Being absolved of sin and escaping indefinite punishment in purgatory only cost a

donation to the Catholic Church and was a privilege encouraged by the arrival of the printing

press—the very innovation that ironically brought said practice of pardoning to its demise

centuries later. Andrew Pettegree’s The Book in the Renaissance examines the historical

developments of print and its capacity to stymie the grasp of dominant institutions over societal

functioning. In the realm of religion, the appearance of Martin Luther and his 95 theses

denouncing the Pope-patroned indulgence trade single-handedly transformed the trajectory of the

Protestant Reformation. Bringing into question the validity of indulgences was an act of high

controversy, as the profitable institution boasted genuine support as a means of funding German

church construction and the war against the Turks, among other local causes aligned with public

interest (Pettegree 93). However, Luther, an esteemed church minister and professor in his time,

was inclined toward heresy, unable to see past the glaring characterization of the Church as a

money-hungry entity disconnected from any true desire to promote atonement among its

subjects. Backed by scholars that resonated with condemnation of the flagrant commercialization

of faith by the Church, Luther’s theses first underwent rapid dissemination in the humanist

learning hubs of Nuremberg and Basel and later in the far reaches of the European continent

(Pettegree 94). The broad reaches of Luther’s influence as a success story of the printing press is

deeply connected to the concepts of profitability and literature of conflict as discussed by

Pettegree. Seeing the profitability of Luther’s heretical works, European printers expanded the

scope of a theological debate amongst academic and clerical circles to engage vernacular

audiences in a literature of conflict between Protestants and Catholics; change in religious protest

was thereby effected through greater inclusion of repressed voices against the domineering

Church.

The printer’s natural inclination toward tasks that guaranteed a steadier flow of income

decisively shifted societal power structures during the Reformation, as the profitability of

Luther’s heretical writings launched unorthodox ideas into public discourse. Particularly risky

because of its demand for “the huge investment in plant, paper and wages”, printing as a budding

enterprise forced its participants to be strategic in deciding what projects to take up (Pettegree

71). For this reason, gauging profitability was crucial to economic success in the industry.

Initially, simple single-sheet jobbing works like indulgences were equated with profitability.

These receipts were a fair trade between the up-and-coming printers and the Catholic Church: the

former invested little and enjoyed rapid return while the latter cemented its hold on

socially-accepted ideology as people quite literally bought into the Papacy’s claim that it could

absolve sin with a sheet of paper (Pettegree 94). However, once the proliferation of the printing

press reached “international” status across Europe, stimulating public interest and accruing a

wide readership topped the lineup of a printer’s priorities (Pettegree 67). As in the case of

Luther’s 95 theses, controversy sold well for its novelty and capacity to rally the eager, yet

previously voiceless. Additionally, printing works that fulfilled a particular niche market was a

highly profitable endeavor in that monopolizing a specialization proved more stable than

competing against an innumerable count of other generalist printers in an industry mired by

unpredictability (Pettegree 70). Contentious works that challenged established social order are

novelties; this fact presents such works as opportunities to develop a new niche. This specialized

method of conducting business proved beneficial for the handful of printers that Luther entrusted

with his original manuscripts. By employing painter Lucas Cranach to create a visual brand of

Luther as “the visionary young monk” and “Protestant patriarch and father”, Luther was able to

use that brand to command a sort of cult following—a niche of sorts (Pettegree 98). Ultimately,

the ability of the Protestant Reformation to more effectively penetrate Catholic influence across

the European continent was largely dependent on the introduction and rise of the printing press.

Although Luther’s criticism against the Papacy’s indulgence trade was not an unprecedented

argument, his success in reaching distant audiences can be attributed to his fortunate timing: the

printing press, an invention for publication that outsped the hand of any scribe, was at his

disposal (“Jan Hus”). With the help of the press, these heretical works facilitated what Pettegree

deemed a literature of conflict.

The literature of conflict, by its existence alone, evidenced the power of visibility that

unorthodox practitioners were afforded—a power previously inaccessible to them without the

advent of print. Beginning with Luther in Wittenberg, heretical ideas often circulated amongst

the public by word of mouth and led to expanded press engagement in Luther’s works across

Germany as printers sought to profit from this newfound interest. Although his teachings

encountered largely negative reception in countries like Spain and Italy, regions adjacent to

Germany incited their own local iterations of Luther’s movement, as in Switzerland with the

Swiss Reformation (Pettegree 107). Adverse reactions were situated in specific historical and

cultural contexts; in Spain, the Catholic Church was celebrated for its hand in helping the

country seize control over the last Moorish outpost thirty years prior while anti-Italianism

sentiment in Germany encouraged rejection of Luther’s beliefs (Pettegree 116). The increasing

polarization between Catholics and Protestants erupted in a series of “pamphlet wars”, with the

printed page as both the vehicle for discrediting either side and the root of a murderous rage that

ultimately culminated in genocide (Pettegree 204). From literature now made widely accessible

by the printing press, religious conflict found its foundations. Faced with legitimate concerns of

massacre and violence, Protestant practitioners fled in a period of mass migration to seek out

refuge in places where they could worship in accordance with their own beliefs. This form of

self-exile incubated radicalism within those who had been forced abroad, making them the

“eager consumers of the most violent religious polemic” (Pettegree 207). In line with the

profitability argument, Pettegree observes the printers’ immediate adoption of this new market

for a Protestant refugee diaspora, most notably in Geneva (Pettegree 207). It was the sheer

expanse of Luther’s influence that incited conservative jurisdiction across several western

European countries. Spearheaded by the Pope’s Index of Forbidden Books, localized censorship

efforts shifted paradigmatically to regulate the sale—rather than production—of books of heresy.

With this, the volatility of conflict over the printed word entered a new dimension as the stakes

for Portestant expression rose to mean persecution or even execution for those found in “mere

possession of a forbidden text” (Pettegree 206). Yet, in spite of the seeming success of the

Papacy and orthodox clerics in exercising control over religious practice and worship, the

literature of conflict is telling of the printing press’s capacity to bring about challenges to the

ruling institution. The widespread mobilization of Protestants—however small and secretive as

importing metrical psalms to the small evangelical congregations of France—testifies to the way

print effectively engaged the vernacular public in a theological debate that would have otherwise

remained confined to the scholarly sphere.

Motivated nearly entirely by profitability of potential tasks, printers across Europe swore

their allegiance to Luther as long as his popularity ensured steady revenue for their

thousand-copy editions of Protestant teachings—a count that stood as a testament to his status as

a writer who enjoyed unprecedented demand for any printed work. But as much as printing

centers flourished as a result of Luther’s command of language, Luther relied on the printing

press to publish and popularize his ideologies. Existing in a mutually beneficial relationship, the

famed dissenter of the Catholic Church and his trusted entourage of printers fanned the flames of

religious conflict with their own specialized weapon: printed literature. Such a widespread

demonstration of religious protest against the dominant orthodox beliefs of the time would have

been wholly nonexistent had it not been for the efficiency and productivity of the entire print

industry.

Works Cited

“Book Town Wittenberg.” The Book in the Renaissance, by Andrew Pettegree, Yale

University Press, 2010, pp. 91-106.

“Jan Hus.” Reformation 500, Concordia Seminary, 11 June 2014.

“Luther’s Legacy.” The Book in the Renaissance, by Andrew Pettegree, Yale University

Press, 2010, pp. 107-129.

“The Creation of a European Book Market.” The Book in the Renaissance, by Andrew Pettegree,

Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 65-90.

“The Literature of Conflict.” The Book in the Renaissance, by Andrew Pettegree, Yale

University

Press, 2010, pp. 203-225.

Dr. Matthew Berry

Media History

02 March 2020

Eisenstein’s Standardization and American Revolution

In Alexis de Tocqueville’s magnum opus Democracy in America, he attempts to ascertain

the cause of success of the peculiar representative democratic republic. He marveled at the

freedom of press found in the burgeoning country and found that “the power of the periodical

press is only second to that of the people” (de Toqueville, 201). The printer was the essential

agent of change in the American Revolution, although driven primarily by economic interest

rather than patriotic fervor. Utilizing the conception of standardization as described by Elizabeth

Eisenstein in The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, the development of efficient

news networks in colonial America will be analyzed in the context of establishing the conditions

necessary for the American revolution. Then, the conditions including the 1765 Stamp Act that

made supporting Revolutionary ideas economically beneficial for printers will be elucidated, as

well as the moment where printers began to readily produce and circulate revolutionary texts.

Elizabeth Eisenstein’s The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe is a seminal text

in the field of media history and has produced many influential ideas that have inspired

generations of academics. Eisenstein belongs to the same tradition as Marshall McLuhan which

believes that the development of print media has revolutionized the structure of knowledge,

modes of perception, and the organization of society and politics. She discusses in Chapter Three

of her work the importance of standardization in the development of print media. Standardization

refers to a sort of twofold phenomenon in printing. Firstly, standardization refers to the ability

after the advent of the printing press to mass produce identical (to varying degrees in early print

history) copies of print. This includes many typographical innovations as well as a shift in style:

“the very concept of a ‘style’ underwent transformation when the work of hand and ‘stylus’ was

replaced by more standardized impressions made by pieces of type” (Eisenstein 58). As printed

copies of a work were more or less identical, it was now much easier to compare an original

scribal work with its copy and notice the inferiority of the copy. This was another catalyst for the

process of standardization.

The onset of standardization also implies a shift in information across space, as now

librarians and other keepers of printed text in separate locations could organize printed materials

coherently in similar ways. Prior to the development of a printing culture, librarians often

organized their collections arbitrarily, and certainly not in any manner uniform across their trade.

Standardization, not only in the manner texts were printed, but also in their categorization was

seminal in developing a coherent structure across borders: “Thus the competitive commercial

character of the printed book trade when coupled with typographical standardization made more

systematic cataloguing and indexing seem not only feasible but highly desirable as well”

(Eisenstein 72). The organizational shift levied by standardization is essential in understanding

the development of a collective print culture.

While this may imply that notions around printed media and adjacent structures become

more uniform as mass production becomes the industry norm, Eisenstein actually concludes the

opposite. Standardization encourages individualization simply because printers need to

differentiate their works from those of their competitors. As stated, “Concepts pertaining to

uniformity and to diversity - to the typical and to the unique - are interdependent. They

represent two sides of the same coin” (Eisenstein 62). While Eisenstein mostly described the

advent of standardization in the temporal framework of early Modem Europe, it can also be

recontextualized and examined in the pre-colonial American era as an element imperative for

revolution.

Standardization was an essential actor in the printing and spread of revolutionary texts

through colonial America, which garnered enough patriotic fervor among the people to launch a

revolt against the Crown. Firstly, it would be impossible to establish the unique and complex

colonial news nexus required for spreading printed materials without standardization. Printing

technology and the ability to mass produce copies to circulate through the colonies were made

possible by standardization practices. The American newspaper was born from the advent of the

postal service. On John Campbell, American postmaster who compiled one of America’s first

weekly newspapers, Paul Starr says in The Creation o f the Media: Political Origins o f Modern

Communications “He conceived of his rule as that of a functionary, not a journalist, treating the

newspaper as an extension of his work as postmaster” (Starr 55). Early periodicals like

Campbell’s were mostly compilations of the most relevant news coming from Europe, and

steered clear of any potentially sensitive topics. The role of the early American printer is highly

reminiscent of the Eisenstenian conception of early printers simultaneously occupying the role of

the “indexer-abridger-translator-lexicographer-chronicler” (Eisenstein 66). Because of this early

and close tie between print and the post, a standardized organizational structure emerged around

the circulation of news periodicals emerged in America. While a number of cities initially had

only one printer making the business of printing monopolistic, competition soon emerged,

forcing the printers to differentiate in order to survive.

Starr notes two stages of transformation in pre-colonial American printing, the first of

which in 1720 introduced competition to the printing industry: “The emergence of public debate

in the press came with the shift from monopoly to competition in printing and newspapers and

with the more general growth and increasing diversity of colonial societies” (Starr 56). This is

another shift that can be attributed to standardization, namely its inclination to push towards

individualization and differentiation. Competing printers had to make sure that their publications

were sufficiently unique in order to garner loyal readership, and could be more bold in their

editorial choices as they did not have to cater to an entire general audience. The development of

diversity and economic competition creates the need to put out a regular publication in order to

survive in the publication industry. This forges a community of interconnected printers and

publishers, have communications networks and are familiar with reliable communications. This

circulation was key in developing a collective consciousness among colonies who had previously

felt like separate entities. In summary, the driving force of standardization generated a reliable

news nexus in order to circulate news periodicals, which would eventually be utilized to spread

revolutionary texts throughout the colonies.

The second transformation in pre-colonial American described by Starr occurs around

1765, marked by “the active, partisan engagement of newspapers in political conflict” (Starr 57).

The dissemination of revolutionary texts through pamphlets and newspapers was not possible

before the American printer was convinced that support would translate to economic success.

The 1765 Stamp Act passed by the Crown enraged colonial printers and readers alike. It was

equivalent to a 50% sales tax on any printed materials in the colonies, which made the business

of printing very difficult. In light of this incredibly unpopular legislation, printers begin to take

sides. Around two-thirds agree with the Sons of Liberty and begin to publish materials with a

revolutionary stance. It is evident that printers saw themselves as catalysts for change, even if

some historians considered them mostly carried by instead of dictating shifting political

situations. In a piece examining the impact of colonial printers of the American South, Calhoun

Winton concluded “By the time of the American Revolution southern printers at any rate

certainly did not see themselves in this way. They knew their printing press was an agent of

change” (Baron et al. 249).

Historically, printers would ally and print the ideas of whatever side was offering the

greatest growth potential, meaning they would invest in works that attracted attention and

readership. As Pettegree describes in The Book in the Renaissance, printers dating even back to

the reign of Maximillian I in the 13th century “...worked to commission, and under their

instructions. The news content was largely incidental to the primary purpose of raising money,

explaining policy, or rallying support” (Pettegree 132). It is clear that entrepreneurial minded

printers align with causes the majority of the public was sympathetic to in order to maximize

profits. Revolutionary newspapers and pamphlets like those written by Thomas Paine were

accessible, exciting, and incited many colonists to join the separatist cause. Common Sense was

printed in 25 editions and consisted of 150,000 copies. Its wide publication allowed for

Revolutionary ideas to reach far and wide, which was enabled by communications structures

established by standardization. It is clear that printers continued to print and circulate similar

revolutionary texts because it was a great generator of revenues. While there certainly were

limits to this because of constraints applied by various state policies across history, the printer’s

primary pursuit was ultimately that of their bottom line.

The Eisensteinian conception of standardization is incredibly important in understanding

the role of the printer as the main catalyst for change during the American Revolution. Firstly,

innovations in standardization of printed materials allowed for a distinct print culture to emerge

in pre-colonial America that formed a communications network for numerous copies of

periodical materials to circulate throughout the colonies. Secondly, standardization encouraged

differentiation and specialization in the publishing realm, generating the economic competition

that would motivate printers to produce and circulate revolutionary texts. The colonial printer

was in many ways the most fervent patriot and the essential force of change in enabling the

American Revolution.

Works Cited:

Baron, Sabrina Alcorn, et al. Agent o f Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L.

Eisenstein. University of Massachusetts Press, 2007. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/book/4297.

Eisenstein, Elizabeth. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University

Press, 2012.

Pettegree, Andrew. The Book in the Renaissance, Yale University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook

Central,

https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/lib/berkeley-ebooks/detail.action7docI

D=3421019.

Starr, Paul. The Creation o f the Media: Political Origins o f Modern Communications. Basic

Books, 2004.

Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America.

https://www.gutenberg.0rg/files/815/815-h/815-h.htm#link2HCH0026.

Media Studies 111

2 March 2020

An Independence Rooted in Newspapers

Paul Starr’s novel The Creation o f Media: Political Origins o f Modern Communication

identifies the parallels between the development of colonial media and the political uprising

against British imperial rule. Starr highlights a letter written by William Cushing - the colonial

chief justice in 1789 - which attributed the American Revolution to the colonial progressions in

media: “Without the liberty of the press could we have supported our liberties against British

administration?” (Starr, 70). Cushing explicates the essential role the press had in encouraging

the separation from England’s control. From the discovery of the colonies until the declaration of

American sovereignty, significant shifts in the news facilitated an increased sense of nationalism

and openness to political controversy. Starr depicts colonial newspapers as “immense moral and

political engines” to stress that they were instrumental in the ignition of rebellion (70). To fully

comprehend the extent of newspapers’ importance in the revolutionary era we must explore the

evolution from unbiased stories about foreign events to the outbreak of highly-debated political

journalism. Increased localization and competition in the newspaper industry birthed a unified

national identity and fostered political engagement that established the formation of the

American Revolution. Furthermore, the progression of colonial newspapers empowered

Americans to revolt against the limitations of British rule, both in media and politics.

Colonial civilization was shaped to promote the culture depicted in London’s press

because colonial newspapers were structured to mimic British news; thus, preventing Americans

from discovering their own distinct identity. Andrew Pettegree’s chapter “Cry Freedom”

analyzes the influence the news - the medium that information arrives in - has had on political

revolutions. Pettegree explicates that before the mid-1700s the Parliament enforced strict

restrictions on free press, believing that it was “very necessary for all governments that the

people should have a good opinion of it” to stress that controversy to England’s political

dominance resulted in criminalization (Pettegree, 330). Therefore, the colonial news primary role

was to please the Parliament. To do this, the news almost exclusively conveyed foreign affairs.

Petegree exemplifies this through the founding of John Campbell’s newspaper, the Boston News-

Letter, in 1704. Petegree stresses that the paper’s success resulted from Campbell’s mirroring of

London’s press style and avoidance of local or controversial topics. Paul Starr’s chapter “News

Foundations” also explores “the first published paper in the colonies” and suggests that England

permitted the production and distribution of Campbell’s newspaper because it posed no threat to

British superiority and set the precedent for colonial newspapers to be unoriginal and impersonal

(Starr, 55). Starr expresses that because of Campbell’s unbiased approach to publication “most of

what the colonists knew about the world went through an English filter,” until a rapid rise in

request for timely information instigated a shift towards demand for the localization of news

(47). Furthermore, initial colonial publications - like the Boston News-Letter - centered their

news around London to demonstrate their support of the Parliament’s authority. However, the

absence of local reporting forged a gap among colonists that would present a need for change

within the press industry.

Since the colonial news was extremely dependent upon foreign media many challenges

arose that stunted the press’s ability to earn profit, consequently encouraging newspapers to

entertain their audiences with stories of domestic events. Petegree noted that Campbell’s success

declined as colonists realized the press took nearly a year for foreign news to be received from

across the Atlantic Ocean, re-printed within colonial newspapers, and redistributed throughout

the colonies. While awaiting new reports from England, colonial publications used

“advertisements, correspondence, witty and diverting articles” in an attempt to fill the pages

(Petegree, 335). However, with the delayed publication of events, colonists did not want to

purchase outdated newspapers because they believed the stories were irrelevant. Around the

same time of the decline in newspaper consumers, there was also an increase in colonial literacy

- providing an enlarged potential market for American publications. In Starr’s chapter

“Capitalism and Democracy in Print,” he illustrates that “America’s high literacy rate and its

rapidly growing population” during the build-up to the revolution, urged the colonial press to

adapt their approach to news (Starr, 114). Ultimately, the combination of untimely news

reporting and amplified literacy rates generated the need for newspapers to switch from foreign

to local-based news.

The localization of media promoted the expansion of political education and engagement,

enabling the colonists to craft a sense of unified nationalism. Starr mentions that “debates about

policy increasingly spilled over into print” to demonstrate how the localization of news

constructed an intertwined relationship between colonial politics and media (Starr, 56). Starr

notes that the Massachusetts Assembly’s decision to publish the results of debates and votes in

1715 fostered “a more open public sphere” (56). Therefore, Starr claims the rise in the public’s

political interest resulted from the press’s movement away from British media. Starr then

suggests that the colonial newspapers’ rejection of the traditional England-centered framework is

what allowed the American people to “define their new nation in opposition to [British culture]”

(48). George Borchard’s novel, A Narrative History o f the American Press, also explores how

newspapers worked to diminish the ties between the colonies and England. Similar to Starr,

Borchard argues that as colonial newspapers entered the political arena they began to adopt a

powerful national identity. He contends that increased local political involvement led to “the

formation of a unique social consciousness, creating an identity separate from their ancestral

roots” (Borchard, 13). Since many colonists were of British heritage, Borchard indicates that the

growth of colonists’ political awareness and interconnectivity developed a sense of patriotism -

which was external to England’s imposed power - that united the population across colonies.

Furthermore, Starr and Borchard both argue that the popularity of local political debates in the

news generated social and political excitement among colonists, which served as seeds of

American nationalism.

While newspapers had begun to educate colonists about politics, the reports remained

unbiased until the introduction of competition in the press industry. With an increased amount of

newspapers in each city, colonists were now presented with choices. In order to attract a large

readership, publications used opinion-based writing to develop their own voice; thus,

competition between colonial papers shaped the beginning of political journalism. The mid-

1700s entailed a rapid rise in the colonial press industry - in sixteen years Boston went from

having two to five well-known newspapers, including the New-England Courant. The New-

England Courant was started and owned by James Franklin who was the first colonial publisher

to ignite political controversy by embedding his personal opinions into news reports. Franklin’s

opinionated texts forced colonists to question, or create, their own political ideologies. This

insertion of political preferences in the news encouraged colonists to be more comfortable

possessing their own beliefs and discussing them with others. Thus, colonists used political

journalism to serve as a “forum for debate about political issues” (Starr, 58). Borchard analyzes

the extent of printers’ new-found dedication to sharing their opinions by quoting Benjamin

Franklin, younger brother of James and owner of the Pennsylvania Gazette. In a published page

from the Pennsylvania Gazette, entitled “An Apology for Printers,” Benjamin Franklin wrote “if

all printers were determined not to print anything til they were sure it would offend nobody,

there would be very little printed” (Borchard, 16). Borchard selected this piece of Benjamin

Franklin’s text because it communicates that once political opinions became widely immersed in

newspapers, printers no longer feared that they would insult their audience.

Colonial journalism’s pushback against Britain’s increased censorship following the

Seven Years’ War functioned as the final media catalyst towards the American Revolution. As

colonial printers felt more liberated to voice their political opinions, British imperial rule grew

aware of their new, offensive journalistic style and imposed more severe restrictions on the press

industry. After England’s victory in the Seven Years’ War, from 1756 to 1763, they grew

uncertain of the colonists’ loyalty; so, the British increased their military presence and media

censorship in the colonies. Petegree reveals that one way the British hoped to secure their

dominance was “to tax colonial newspapers in the same war that English papers were taxed: by

requiring them to use stamped, that is specially authorized and certified, paper” (Petegree, 334).

This taxation refers to the Stamp Act of 1765. Petegree emphasizes that contrary to the little

backfire from the stamp act enforced in England years prior, Americans voiced their passionate

resistance to the act because the press industry viewed the battle to gain free press as reflective of

a larger battle to gain independence (335). Therefore, printers argued against the Stamp Act by

publishing stories to inspire colonists to rebel against the Parliament’s authority. Borchard

explicates that the colonial printers exercised their voice “increasingly without regard to the

dictators of a British Crown” to show that their fears of the potential consequences from

contradicting the Parliament had been overcome by their desire to circulate news freely

(Borchard, 14). Borchard illustrates this through Samuel Adams’s call for “colonists alike to

defend themselves against the British” in his newspaper, the Boston Gazette, in 1769 (20).

Adams represented one of the colonial revolutionary leaders because “he swayed readers

otherwise ambivalent to oppose British rule” (26). Borchard uses Adam’s passionate call to

action to exemplify the powerful role colonial printers and publishers played in persuading

colonists to strip away their fears and fight for American sovereignty.

The transformations in colonial news, specifically newspapers, propelled colonists’

interest in local politics, increasing their determination to express their political opinions without

the British government’s interference. The colonial newspaper industry originated as bland and

inapplicable reports of foreign news, mostly from London. Then, the move to favor localized

news brought attention to politics, shaping the colonies’ collective interests apart from the British

government. Competitions among newspaper publications enabled political opinions to be

molded and debated more openly. Finally, newspapers’ opposition to the Parliament’s

censorship, specifically the Stamp Act, sponsored a revolutionary mindset across the colonies.

Furthermore, after analyzing the significant influence newspapers held in advancing colonial

political expression, and ultimately rebellion, it is clear that - in the case of the American

Revolution - the press has the power to facilitate political participation within the masses and

promote revolutionary change.

Works Cited

Borchard, Gregory. “Pre-Revolution Print: The Colonial Origins of the American Press.” A

Narrative History o f the American Press. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018, pp. 12 - 26.

Pettegree, Andrew. “Cry Freedom.” The Invention o f News: How the World Came to Know Itself

New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014, pp. 326 - 345.

Starr, Paul. “Capitalism and Democracy in Print.” The Creation o f the Media: Political Origins

o f Modern Communication. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2014, pp. 113 - 152.

Starr, Paul. “New Foundation.” The Creation o f Media: Political Origins o f Modern

Communication. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2014, pp. 47 - 82.