Birth of Journalism: tesina

BIRTH OF JOURNALISM: TESINA

Tesina sulla nascita del giornalismo in Inghilterra.

Inglese: Birth of Journalism. “La penna è nella vita moderna ciò che la lancia fu nei tempi eroici: protegge, uccide, conquista. Chi non si addestra per tempo a maneggiar quest’arme, mal per lui! Il suo posto sarà tra i vassalli o i servi”. (E. De Marchi, “L’età preziosa”).
During the second half of 18th century, the interest of middle-class people in literature, art, social problems and political life, as well as their eagerness to be informed and to discuss events or personages of the day, gave much impulse to a new literary form called journalism. Its development was also supported by the rise of coffee-houses1 and of a new postal system.
Two men, in particular, contributed to its rise, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, with the periodicals “The Tatler” and “The Spectator”.
But at the beginning of this century, beyond “The Spectator” in England there were other important journals: “The Review”, “The Examiner”, “The Gentlemen’s Magazine” and “The Champion”.

Storia del giornalismo italiano, di Murialdi: riassunto

HISTORY OF JOURNALISM IN ENGLAND

“The Review” by Daniel Defoe was published twice or thrice a week from February 1704 to June 1713. It was an organ of moderation, religious and political, and of broad commercial interest. The Defoe of “The Review” is liberal and consistent in his politics and far-sighted in commercial and economic matters. The final few numbers continued to offer the same scathing and amusing essays as the early numbers had done, and with the same verve and imagination. It was ultimately government intervention that brought this newspaper to a close in 1713.
“The Examiner” had been started by St. John, and Swift wrote for it regularly until 1711. It was a Tory rag; when Swift gave up his connection with “The Examiner”, he composed two pamphlets in favour of peace, because the Whigs, opposed to a peace between England and France, formed an alliance with Nottingham, previously an extreme Tory town.

The augustan age: riassunto in inglese

HISTORY OF ENGLISH JOURNALISM

“The Gentlemen’s Magazine” was founded in London by Edward Cave, a printer editor and publisher. He created the first general-interest “magazine” in the modern sense. It provided political news and miscellaneous fare ranging from cooking recipes to riddles; there were practical information about domestic life and Cave combined moral improvement with entertainment. He conceived the idea of a periodical that would cover every topic the educated public was interested in, from commerce to poetry.
“The Champion”, an opposition journal, was edited for three years by Henry Fielding; he wrote satirical articles for it and, at the same time, for other newspapers.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719). Addison was born in Wiltshire and he attended Charterhouse School in London, where he met Steele, and then Oxford, where he took a degree. He started his literary career as a poet: he dedicated a poem to John Dryden and translated Virgilio’s “Georgiche”. In 1706 he began to work as a civil servant an held public posts under the Whig government. In 1708 he became a member of parliament.
Addison died in 1719 and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.