Reading and understanding newspapers. Пыж А.М. - 13 стр.

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The Origins of Newspapers
The history of newspapers is an often-dramatic chapter of the human
experience going back some five centuries. In Renaissance Europe
handwritten newsletters circulated privately among merchants, passing along
information about everything from wars and economic conditions to social
customs and "human interest" features. The first printed forerunners of the
newspaper appeared in Germany in the late 1400's in the form of news
pamphlets or broadsides, often highly sensationalized in content. Some of the
most famous of these report the atrocities against Germans in Transylvania
perpetrated by a sadistic veovod named Vlad Tsepes Drakul, who became the
Count Dracula of later folklore.
In the English-speaking world, the earliest predecessors of the
newspaper were corantos, small news pamphlets produced only when some
event worthy of notice occurred. The first successively published title was The
Weekly Newes of 1622. It was followed in the 1640's and 1650's by a plethora
of different titles in the similar newsbook format. The first true newspaper in
English was the London Gazette of 1666. For a generation it was the only
officially sanctioned newspaper, though many periodical titles were in print by
the century's end.
Beginnings in America
In America the first newspaper appeared in Boston in 1690, entitled
Publick Occurrences. Published without authority, it was immediately
suppressed, its publisher arrested, and all copies were destroyed. Indeed, it
remained forgotten until 1845 when the only known surviving example was
discovered in the British Library. The first successful newspaper was the
Boston News-Letter, begun by postmaster John Campbell in 1704. Although it
was heavily subsidized by the colonial government the experiment was a near-
failure, with very limited circulation. Two more papers made their appearance
in the 1720's, in Philadelphia and New York, and the Fourth Estate slowly
became established on the new continent. By the eve of the Revolutionary War,
some two dozen papers were issued at all the colonies, although Massachusetts,
New York, and Pennsylvania would remain the centers of American printing
for many years. Articles in colonial papers, brilliantly conceived by
revolutionary propagandists, were a major force that influenced public opinion
in America from reconciliation with England to full political independence.
At war's end in 1783 there were forty-three newspapers in print. The
press played a vital role in the affairs of the new nation; many more
newspapers were started, representing all shades of political opinion. No holds
barred style of early journalism, much of it libellous by modern standards,
reflected the rough and tumble political life of the republic as rival factions
jostled for power. The ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791 at last
guaranteed of freedom of the press, and America's newspapers began to take
on a central role in national affairs. Growth continued in every state. By 1814

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