Page 227 - Culture Society and the Media

CULTURE, SOCIETY AND THE MEDIA 217
subsequent development of a radical working-class press in Britain during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Both developments illustrate the disruptive
consequences that follow upon mass media evolving in opposition to the
dominant social order (16) .
During the early eighteenth century, the middle class in Britain was largely
excluded from the institutionalized political process by the limited franchise
which gave to the great landed families effective control over small and
unrepresentative constituencies. The middle class was also, to some extent,
excluded from the central bureaucracy and spoils of office by the patronage
system of the dominant landed class who controlled the state. It was denied even
the opportunity to participate in a meaningful way in national politics (and
therefore to advance its interests) by the consensual political values of the landed
élite that discouraged political participation. Central to this consensus was the
concept of ‘virtual representation’ by which politicians drawn from the landed
élite were said to represent the public by virtue of their independence and
tradition of public service, even though they were not directly elected by the
people. Great stress was laid also on the independent, deliberative role of the
parliamentarian and the complexity of statecraft in a way that discouraged
popular participation in the political process. As Burke put it, the parliamentarian
is like ‘a physician (who) does not take his remedy from the ravings of the patient’
(quoted in Brewer, 1976, p. 237).
Regulation of the press was one means by which aristocratic political
ascendancy was maintained. Newspapers were subject to strict legal controls—
the law of seditious libel, which was used to prevent criticism of the political
system, general warrants issued at the discretion of the authorities against people
suspected of committing a seditious libel, and a legal ban on the reporting of
parliament. In addition, taxes on newspapers, advertisements and paper were
introduced in 1712 mainly in order to increase the price of newspapers and
thereby restrict their circulation. Successive administrations also sought to
manage the political press by offering secret service subsidies, official
advertising and exclusive information to newspapers in return for editorial
services rendered to the government as well as giving rewards and sinecures to
sympathetic journalists. Opposition groups in parliament countered with similar
tactics in order to sustain an opposition press. Consequently, the political press
(consisting largely of London papers) was completely dominated by the landed
élite which controlled both government and parliament.
Rising levels of press taxation were frustrated, however, by economic growth
which created a growing middle-class public for newspapers and a rising volume
of advertising which aided its development. The number of local provincial
newspapers increased from 22 to about 50 titles between 1714 and 1782
(Cranfield, 1962; Read, 1961). The provincial press also increased its coverage
of public affairs, assisted by the improvement in local and postal
communications and the increase in the number of metropolitan papers from
which it shamelessly plagiarised material. This expansion of a more politicized,