{"id":39426,"date":"2021-06-23T03:30:28","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T07:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=39426"},"modified":"2021-06-25T08:31:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T12:31:19","slug":"print-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/print-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Print Culture vs. Modern Media: The Tides of Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How did the print culture of previous centuries differ from the entertainment and media culture of today? How has our approach to media consumption<\/a> changed over the years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The print-centered discourse of 18th and 19th century America was rational, substantive, and serious. In comparison, the entertainment culture of today is shallow, prioritizing entertainment over intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s how the age of print culture differed from our current-day society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The History of Print Culture <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To understand just how much television has changed the way we think and talk, it\u2019s necessary to contrast today\u2019s shallow entertainment culture with the serious, rational print culture that shaped America from the colonists\u2019 arrival in the New World through the 19th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that era, print structured public discourse<\/a>, influenced its content, and appealed to and required a certain kind of audience\u2014one skilled at reading and thinking<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The colonists were avid readers, particularly of the Bible, but they brought many books with them from England and had others imported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The literacy rate for all social classes was high. For instance, in Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1640-1700, the rate for men was between 89% and 95%. For women between 1681-1697, it was as high as 62%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religion (being able to read the Bible) was a driving factor. In addition, immigrants to New England came from more literate parts of the Old World, or were a more literate demographic. Further, most New England towns required a \u201creading and writing school\u201d; larger ones required a grammar school also. Reading influenced political, religious, and social life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Centrality of Reading<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Most reading was done with intent rather than casually. Since there were no media other than print, reading was the way people educated themselves and accessed public knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would have been difficult to read by candlelight or lantern, and people had little \u201cfree\u201d time. Thus, a farm boy reading while following a plow, a family reading the Bible on Sunday, or a merchant reading aloud announcements of ship arrivals were purposeful readers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The modern idea of \u201creading comprehension\u201d as something separate from the act of reading would have seemed ludicrous, because comprehending was the purpose of reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading was necessary to participate in public life. To the framers of the Constitution, literacy and reasoning ability were essential to self-governance. It\u2019s why Thomas Jefferson advocated universal education, and why most states tried to ensure maturity and literacy by requiring voters to be at least 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Print-Centered Discourse<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Paine\u2019s Common Sense<\/a>,<\/em> published on January 10, 1776, had an immense audience, selling about 400,000 copies. The equivalent in 1985 would be a book selling 24 million copies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of capturing public attention, Paine\u2019s feat would be comparable to the Super Bowl today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides pamphlets, the earliest homegrown literature took the form of a newspaper started in 1690 in Boston. Printers like Benjamin Franklin also published journals, sermons, and \u201cbroadsides\u201d carrying dueling opinions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the late 18th century, a national conversation developed around the Federalist Papers (85 essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, published in 1787-88), which were read widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subscription libraries accessible to members only developed in the 1800s; \u201capprentices\u2019 libraries\u201d also developed for the working class. The McGuffey Reader<\/em> was popular in schools, while adults read Walter Scott\u2019s novels. Charles Dickens got a celebrity\u2019s welcome to America in 1842.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lecture halls were everywhere, even reaching to the frontier. People of all classes rushed to evening lectures after long days at work. Lectures at the Smithsonian Institution drew crowds of up to 1,500 to hear leading intellectuals and writers, including Horace Greeley and Ralph Waldo Emerson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Print influenced not only the discourse (what people talked about), but also its nature (the way they talked). People spoke as though they were reading. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America<\/em> that literate Americans didn\u2019t converse<\/em>\u2014they held forth on topics at length as if they were presenting dissertations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public Debates<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The public debates of the mid-19th century further illustrated how print shaped discourse. Print influenced both the speakers and listeners\u2014they shared a way of thinking and understanding derived from reading.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attending debates on the issues of the day was an important part of civic and social life. County and state fairs offered lineups of speakers in three-hour slots with equal time for opponents. \u201cStump\u201d speaking, in which speakers held forth while standing on a tree stump, was also popular in the West. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speakers used the style of the written word with long, complex sentences, as well as rhetorical devices such as sarcasm, irony, and metaphors, with confidence their audiences would be able to keep up. They could also rely on their listeners\u2019 familiarity with history and current events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audiences had remarkable attention spans. They did get rowdy at times with shouting and applause\u2014debates were, in part, social events\u2014but audiences always took them seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Although there were many debates, the Lincoln-Douglas debates stood out as among the most memorable. There were seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and incumbent U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, whom Lincoln was challenging for the Senate seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first took place on Aug. 21, 1858, in Ottawa, Illinois. The format called for Douglas to speak for an hour, after which Lincoln would have an hour and a half to reply. This was much shorter than typical debates, including several in which the two men had faced off in the past. One of the earlier ones was seven hours\u2014the audience took a dinner break and returned for the conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lincoln and Douglas wrote their speeches in advance and also wrote out their rebuttals. Even their direct exchanges followed the syntax of the written word. They followed a scholarly format of argument, counterargument, references to and criticism of other texts, and a critique of past statements by the other party. Speaking in a form of explanatory prose, they appealed to the audience\u2019s reason, not emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Age of Exposition<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As the debates illustrated, the print-centered discourse of 18th and 19th century America was rational, substantive, and serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was serious because it grew out of reading, which is a serious and rational process. Readers need to follow a line of reasoning and recognize falsehoods, overgeneralizations, biases, contradictions, and failed logic. They must be able to make judgments, comparisons, and connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reasoned, substantive discourse shaped by print extended well beyond political debate. Other types of public discourse included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n