The local paper: The premier history publisher of the Victorian era? (original) (raw)
Related papers
Readers’ Letters to Victorian Local Newspapers as Journalistic Genre
Allison Cavanagh & John Steel (eds), Letters to the Editor, Comparative and Historical Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan 2019), 2019
Letters to the editor in English local newspapers in the second half of the nineteenth century were a journalistic genre, although presented as if written by non-journalists. They were journalistic in that they were selected, edited and occasionally written by journalists. This high degree of mediation limits their use in assessing public opinion, although quantitative analysis reveals suggestive patterns, and analysing them in aggregate offers more reliable conclusions than placing too much weight on any individual letter. These letters were mainly on local matters, overwhelmingly negative, and usually ‘talked past each other’ (Wahl-Jorgensen, K., Journalists and the Public: Newsroom Culture, Letters to the Editor, and Democracy. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2007, 198), although there was some genuine debate. Pseudonyms, which became less popular, were used rhetorically, and gave anonymity, especially for women and working-class letter-writers. The public sphere probably became more bourgeois, despite growing working-class readership, and more splintered, but did not decline. This is the first systematic study of readers’ letters in the mainstream Victorian press (i.e. newspapers produced outside London). Local weekly newspapers have been chosen because they were the most popular mass media product of the second half of the nineteenth century, their letters were probably less mediated, and in aggregate, they give a national picture. This study uses content analysis and close reading of letters in newspapers in Preston, Lancashire, combined with evidence from the trade press, memoirs, company histories of newspapers and private correspondence.
10. How Readers Used the Local Paper
A Fleet Street in Every Town: The Provincial Press in England, 1855-1900, 2018
I love being part of a scholarly community, and I owe so much to the generosity, time, encouragement and practical help of other members of this community. Thanks to Dave Russell and Steve Caunce for taking this project seriously in the first place, and for their excellent supervision, with the help of Dawn Archer; to other historians at the University of Central Lancashire, past and present, who have offered encouragement and inspiration to so many mature students like myself, including
Historical Insights: Focus on Research -- Newspapers
This guide serves as an introduction to using newspapers as resources in historical research. It outlines the history of newspaper publication in Great Britain as well as suggestions on the effective use of original, microfilm and digital copies. Guidance is included on early newspapers (pre-1714) through to the present day.
2010
This thesis demonstrates that the most popular periodical genre of the second half of the nineteenth century was the provincial newspaper. Using evidence from news rooms, libraries, the trade press and oral history, it argues that the majority of readers (particularly working-class readers) preferred the local press, because of its faster delivery of news, and because of its local and localised content. Building on the work of Law and Potter, the thesis treats the provincial press as a national network and a national system, a structure which ...
5. What They Read: The Production of the Local Press in the 1880s
2018
I love being part of a scholarly community, and I owe so much to the generosity, time, encouragement and practical help of other members of this community. Thanks to Dave Russell and Steve Caunce for taking this project seriously in the first place, and for their excellent supervision, with the help of Dawn Archer; to other historians at the University of Central Lancashire, past and present, who have offered encouragement and inspiration to so many mature students like myself, including
4. What They Read: The Production of the Local Press in the 1860s
2018
I love being part of a scholarly community, and I owe so much to the generosity, time, encouragement and practical help of other members of this community. Thanks to Dave Russell and Steve Caunce for taking this project seriously in the first place, and for their excellent supervision, with the help of Dawn Archer; to other historians at the University of Central Lancashire, past and present, who have offered encouragement and inspiration to so many mature students like myself, including