The textbook makes a great point of connecting the printing press from the previous chapter and this one, just hitting home how important that invention really was. As important books were to furthering culture and increasing knowledge they took a long time to be written and wide produced. On top of this many books were stories, mostly historical fiction stories based on a real time but with a fictitious plot. While the idea of knowing what’s happening around the whole in real time isn’t radical to us the access to quick and reliable news wasn’t available to the general public. While books paved the way for more people being able to read and understand Newspapers paved the way for people to read and act upon events that are happening in their life.

During these times having a democratic government wasn’t popular, there for you saw a lot of the people in power restricting the knowledge that was being put out there, which has been a problem for a long time. As the textbook covered that in the early days many governments wouldn’t let local news be written about, probably so the common people didn’t realize how much they were getting f-ed over.

John Oliver

Oliver makes a lot of good points, losing these newspapers can be catastrophic to news in general. While many not the general public read the newspaper day after day the outlets we get out news from do need these newspaper, especially the local newspapers. While in the early days of newspaper were regulated by the government and the public couldn’t get their own local information. We are now on the flip side of that where we might have bankrupt our only way to get local news.

This leads into the fall of newspaper. I used to want to be a journalist freshman year of high school, both my parents told me it was useless as I wouldn’t have a job out of college. I still went and took a journalist class that same year and my teacher told me the same thing. The fact of the matter is ( at least in america ) most intelligent people don’t trust a lot of the news they see anymore. It takes a lot for them to full trust a source. On the other side is people that believe everything they read no matter how poorly it is written. Why would they pay for a a trusted source that put a lot of time and energy into something when they can get something for free on Facebook.

“The Wire” brings up really important points about the lives of these Journalist. We can all talk about how sad losing newspaper is but this episode show how it is impacting thousands of lives. How matter of factually he talked about closing all those branches around the world as you see the employees faces fall is heartbreaking. On a lighter note it touches on how the integrity of journalism is held to the highest standard among journalist. It shows why all other new sources come back to these writers because they are held to such a high standard for their stories.

” Truth is the best defense against libel ” – Lastly I wanted to talk about this quote we went over in class. I think its very relative right now in our country. Libel and slander seem to be the other laws in our country that the plaintiff has to come into court with evidence they are innocent instead of the other way around. Right now in this country there are a lot of people who are bringing up those who are victims of police brutally pasts. These people can’t defend themselves which is why this is a flaw in our system.

My question to the class: As 18-24 year olds have you ever sat down and read the newspaper. Do you remember what you read? Did you read it for information or for the cartoon? ( I definitely only read it for the cartoons when I was little ) If you did read the newspaper at what age did you stop or do you still read it?

I think the part of the textbook where they talk about the effects of the mass production of books is huge! This was really a turning point in modern history. I know Professor Schlegal said the printing press is the second biggest invention behind fire, which I think you can change to the biggest invention in modern history. As stated in the textbook the printing press lead to the growth of the middle class and the knowledge that was being able to spread that wasn’t available before. Now we know that the easy access to knowledge and education is the key to advancing as a civilization and the printing press allowed that.

The next important things books brought was a way for females to get their voices out there. Early on writing under a male name but still being able to put work out there that connected to other women. Jane Austin being a huge influence, even now I had to read ‘Jane Eyre’ in high school. I am super interested in how women thought back then and how they expressed themselves so I went on and read ‘Pride and Prejudice’ which is her most famous piece. If you haven’t read it I highly suggest, has more than just romance!, it has a strong female lead that stands up for herself and her family as well as speak out against her social status. For a woman in that time it was almost unheard of and if you did speak out you were rejected by society so having a story that could connect to them must have been huge. On top of Jane Austin you also had Mary Shelley who basically started a genre with ‘Frankenstein’. I think a lot of women gain respect through their writing and broke out against the sexist world they lived in.

My Question for the class is for then women if there was a female author you grew up reading did her writing change you as a woman? and for the guys did you have a female author you grew up reading that made you see women in a different light?

Lastly I want to bring up the trouble I and I’m sure you guys are also feeling, there are no books written for 18-24. I used to read a book a day over my summer breaks in middle and high school now I can’t even remember the last book I read cover to cover. I used to read all types of young adult books and I still have all of those books in my room, I went to go read one that I remember being my favorite and I could barely get past the first chapter. As amazing as this book was in my memory I have out grown the story and the writing, not that the author is a bad writer but it was written for a fifteen year old brain not my twenty one year old brain. I tried to get into some of my mom’s book which I call real adult books and I felt like while the writing was more my speed the story isn’t something that connects with me. Anyone have any thoughts about that?

I’m Hayley and a senior Business major with minors in marketing, equine business and equine sciences. I’m a member of two of our equestrian teams at Alfred and own my own horse who stays in Rochester. I also work with dogs, I care for daycare and boarding dogs along with helping with grooming and training.