The english press: into the future (part 2) | thearticle

The press has often fascinated playwrights. In Samuel Foote’s late play _The Bankrupt_ (1773), ‘Margin,’ a newspaper editor, refers to the role of the seasons in providing material for the

press: ‘Plays and Parliament houses are winter provisions…. I warrant you, if you are not idle, there’s business enough. The press teems with fresh publications – histories, translations,

voyages – and what with letters from Paris or Spa, inundations, elopements, dismal effects of thunder and lightning, remarkable causes at country assizes, and with changing the ministry now

and then, you will have employment enough the summer.’ When Foote was accused of homosexuality by the _Public Ledger_ in 1775-6, he turned its editor, William Jackson, into Dr Viper, the

editor of the _Scandalous Chronicle_, in his last play _The Capuchin_ (1776). The _Sun_ was, from the 1980s, particularly successful in making the news fun (to some), and notably so in its

arresting and often punning headlines. ‘FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER,’ carried on 13 March 1986, was the most famous. Starr, a comic, said that the incident was a total fabrication, one

invented by the prominent publicist Max Clifford in order to focus interest on the star. Starr claimed the story came about because of an offhand remark he made. The other really famous

headline, ‘GOTCHA,’ published in the _Sun_ on 2 May 1982, referred to a real episode, the sinking of the Argentinean warship, the _General Belgrano_, by a British submarine, HMS _Conqueror_,

during the Falklands War. Interest in non-political news, preponderantly, of a celebrity type, was much in evidence with the _Daily Mail_ online in the 2010s. Whereas the print edition

tended to begin with substantive stories about news, celebrity gossip occupied that position in the online edition. The contrast was very clear by 2018. On 1 September 2018, _Mail Online_

led with ‘Roxanne Pallett Walks out of the Celebrity Big Brother house amid backlash over the ex-Emmerdale Star’s claim that former Coronation Street actor Ryan Thomas punched her.’ That

day, the _Daily Mail_ led on ‘Schools turn down children who live one minute away,’ an item that appeared well down in the _Online _headlines. There was scant difference between the tone of

such _Online_ issues and social media items, but the relevant journalism rested in providing a mass of material of such type. Moreover, the ‘gossipy’ or ‘magazine-y’ character of much of the

press as a whole is clear with the Saturday supplements and the need to fill their bulk in order to match the would-be advertising. At the same time, this matched public preferences. ‘We

live in a time of quite difficult, bleak news,’ pointed out a radio presenter in 2018 explaining why listeners were switching from _Today_ on Radio 4. Duncan Allen, the fictional editor of

the _Post_ in _Press_, remarks ‘Life’s hard, and our readers want a giggle.’ He is described by Holly, the Deputy News Editor of the _Post_, as ‘a misogynistic, overbearing, well-oiled

bully, an offence to journalism.’ The magazine character of the popular press is evident. Rob Rinder, a columnist in the _Evening Standard_, began an article on 31 August 2018: ‘I was

flicking through the papers, shaking my head at another week of showbiz stories about spoilt pop stars making unreasonable demands, spending small fortunes on bling, holidays and cars, and

demanding “Don’t You Know Who I Am!.” The _Daily Mail_ of 11 September 2018 led on ‘Soup and Shake Diet on the NHS to reverse diabetes’ and included ‘Home Gadgets that spy on you – free pull

out’ and ‘Have they _really_ killed Keeley? 10 _Bodyguard_ theories that will have you hooked,’ a two-page spread on a current television series. So also with the quality press. Thus, the

_Sunday Telegraph_ on 2 September 2018 included quizzes as well as lots on wine, modern manners, and ‘The 20 questions that could lead to a more fulfilling life resolved by our team of

experts. A fortnight later, there was a headline at the top ‘Angela Hartnell joins _The Telegraph_. Her favourite Italian dinner party recipes.’ The _Times_ on 29 August 2018 offered

commentary on a new BBC series about midlife raunchiness, while, reviewing the ‘stars’ social media before their dance debuts,’ the _Daily Mirror _of 21 September 2018 asked ‘Who’s clicked

on Strictly?’ Ultimately, the question becomes one of definition. Is the paper element more, or as significant, as that of news? Probably not. Far from being a formulaic product and

practice, the ‘paper’ is already read by many online, more so than the book on Kindle or in audio formats, and there is no reason why that process should not develop further. Indeed, in one

respect, the dynamic response to the changing character of the press is an aspect of the complexities of constructing identities and the democratisation that are so prevalent in modern

society. Thus, in 2018, the _Times _changed its online character in order to encourage reader debate. At the same time, there was a shift in emphasis that was readily apparent in the many

coffee-houses of the present day. They tend to have far more people online than reading, whether newspapers or anything else. Moreover, the change in café culture is instructive.

‘Greasy-spoon’ cafes still tend to have (old-fashioned) tabloids and people reading them, but that is far less the case in metropolitan coffee-houses. Changes in society are hitting the

places where people meet and read the traditional popular press. The element of democratisation was understood as latent from the very start of printing and, even more, the press, and led to

both criticism and praise, both, to a degree, exaggerated as well as teleological. This is especially apparent in concern about population. Thus, Richard Steele, in the _Englishman_ of 7

November 1715, claimed, in terms that are reminiscent of some recent writing: ‘as the vulgar are more affected with legerdemain tricks, than honest performances of art; so are they easier to

be wrought upon by tricks in logic, by insidious fallacies, than by the most just and solid reasoning. They are equally incapable of discerning the force of a good argument, or the weakness

of a bad one. This opens a wide field for men of ill designs, to impose what they please upon them; and there will never be wanting men who will have the hardiness and conscience to bring

about their designs by such ungenerous arts.’ Thirteen years later, Richard Buckner, estate agent to the 2nd Duke of Richmond, reported from Sussex: ‘Politics is the only prevailing

conversation at present, and there is no company, or set of men of what degree soever, who does not take upon them to describe matters as peremptorily as if they were at the very bottom of

the secret. These discourses perpetually produce murmurings, and when they are warm with ale and arguments, they launch out into such a liberty of speech as if they had letters patent of

indemnification in their pockets. They loudly complain of stagnation of trade, the capture of so many merchant ships, the dilatory proceedings of the Congress, and such general topics,

extracted from the _Craftsman _and _Fog’s _ as furnishes them with sufficient matter for reflection.’ So also with the overlap between forms. Attacking some other newspapers on 9 December

1727 in terms that prefigure current discussion of social media, _Applebee’s Original Weekly Journal_ complained of those: ‘whose only excellencies consist in their propagating and

improving, with art and subtlety, every factious story, and idle rumour, they can glean up in coffee-houses and other places of public resort.’ A history of the press that is at once

constant in its themes, and cyclical in the forms it addresses, may not match modern interest in the teleological, or in the idea of a programmatic rise and decline; but it is still a

history that is worthy of consideration.