The Old New Media
The American Revolution happened in an era of new media. In those days, "new media" was ink on rag paper. In Germany alone, according to one source, "410 new magazines and newspapers were founded in the 1760s, 718 in the 1770s, and 1,225 in the 1780s."
The Founders of America knew how to exploit this media, and to use it to steer public opinion at home and abroad. I credit their success, at least in part, to that. Whig leaders in Massachusetts sent news of the skirmish at Lexington scudding across the Atlantic on a fast schooner, and got their version of events into print in England weeks before General Gage's official report arrived.
Leading up to the war, and after it, they poured their rhetoric into the newspapers. A lasting monument to that is the work we call "The Federalist," 85 articles published over 10 months, none terribly long, including recycled letters and speeches and some direct rebuttals to anti-Federalist critics. They resemble nothing in a modern newspaper, but bear comparison to a series of brilliantly reasoned blog posts.
The Founders of America knew how to exploit this media, and to use it to steer public opinion at home and abroad. I credit their success, at least in part, to that. Whig leaders in Massachusetts sent news of the skirmish at Lexington scudding across the Atlantic on a fast schooner, and got their version of events into print in England weeks before General Gage's official report arrived.
Leading up to the war, and after it, they poured their rhetoric into the newspapers. A lasting monument to that is the work we call "The Federalist," 85 articles published over 10 months, none terribly long, including recycled letters and speeches and some direct rebuttals to anti-Federalist critics. They resemble nothing in a modern newspaper, but bear comparison to a series of brilliantly reasoned blog posts.
