Looking past the American Revolution and into America’s modern society, we see techniques and influences similar to those of the printing press and Revolution pamphlets in society’s use of digital blogs. Pamphlets written during the American Revolution Era are the closest equivalent to the modern day blog. Just like the pamphlets and how colonists who expressed personal opinions wrote them, blogs allow everyday people to digitally post their opinions for the masses to see. The printing press was the first communication medium that allowed communication from one person to many.[1] It was revolutionary in and of its self because it was the first time information from one person could reach the masses. Today we see the advancement of communication via one-to-many, to communication of ‘many-to-many,’ [2] through the development of digital technologies. Blogs act as virtual-reality printing presses.[3] Just like in Revolutionary times and the printing press, blogs have become a vital source for gathering information and news.[4] Blogs can act as ‘call to actions’ in the way that pamphlets did by projecting one’s opinions to create change in public opinion or create general public awareness. Blogs seem to be the modern day pamphlets. They project and circulate news and opinions to the masses.
Watch this video to understand more about the new craze of blogging and how it works as a form of expression and makes anyone a journalist in some way.
In addition, blogs create unintended consequences, just like the printing press and pamphlets did. The invention of the Gutenberg printing press had unintended controversies, such as the issue of piracy and freedom of the press. Today’s technologies are rapidly evolving and will have their own set of unintended consequences.[5] Blogging obtains news challenges and controversies regularly because the technology is always changing. Since a blog is a type of ‘virtual-printing press,’ it does face similar issues centered on free press and the struggles of truth versus opinion. There are controversies over how far a free press can go. People debate about what can and cannot be said about various topics and how much free press protects a person. A recent case over a controversial blog gained headlines at Marquette University. A faculty member at Marquette made statements about a graduate instructor at the university by naming her. Marquette suspended the faculty blogger’s tenure and said he must apologize or he will be fired. [6] John McAdams accused the fellow colleague of shutting down a conversation on gay marriage based on her political beliefs. There is this question whether that was his opinion of the encounter or if it is the truth, and that he should have the ability to freedom of expression and not be forced to apologize. Bloggers are faced with controversies surrounding their extent and power in self-expression and free speech. Also, the virtue of blogs being a free entry into the marketplace makes quality filters weak, which may be an ill consequence of the digital blog.[7] When a topic is posted on a blog, it is analyzed and evaluated by viewers of the Internet, which makes it easier for blogs to be discredited for errors and also offers commenting for criticism.[8] Pamphlets also offered push back and criticism, and by its technological standards of the printing press at the time, resemble a similarity to the ability of critical commentary on a blog. However, blogs offer immediate criticism that all viewers can see, while pamphlets required a person to write a new pamphlet that offered pushback on a previous pamphlet. One can see how the revolutionary invention of the printing press has lasting effects on society and has been adapted, rather than forgotten, throughout the ever-changing new media of American society.
Blogs beg the question: Who can be a journalist?
[1] James Dewar, “The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead” (1998), 4.
[2] Ibid., 14.
[3] Tyler Cowen, “The New World of Blogs,” Freeman, March 2004, pg. 16, accessed March 12, 2016, http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/196608974?accountid=465.
[4] Ibid., 16.
[5] Dewar, 3.
[6] Scott Jaschik, “If You Say You’re Sorry”, Inside Higher Ed, Posted on March 25, 2016, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/03/25/marquette-suspends-controversial-faculty-blogger-requires-him-apologize, (Accessed on May 4, 2016).
[7] Cowen, 17.
[8] Ibid., 18.
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Printing Press & The Revolutionary War Era 