Saturday, November 24, 2012

The long history of New Media (anyone for a pamphlet?)


Welcome back to the Lily Pad folks. Pull up a comfy chair, sit down, pop your feet up and settle back for a small history lesson about pamphlets.

From the 1500s to the early twentieth century, pamphlets were a common way for people to share their opinions. Pamphlets were short, quickly-created publications that had a distinct aim. They related to something of common, current interest such as politics, religion, personal issues, famous people or literature. They often used satire and were frequently controversial, even slanderous. They were designed to be read by the masses.

Someone who created and distributed these pamphlets was known as a pamphleteer. Pamphlets were around before either books or newspapers.
A Pamphleteer getting his pamph on. Nice tights.
Image from
here.
 
In 1518 Martin Luther* – a German religious pamphleteer – was surprised to find a private publication he’d written had been translated, copied and widely circulated by some of his friends. It soon spread through Europe. Imagine his even greater surprise when this “95 Theses” became the basis of the Protestant Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church.

Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the church.
This is a myth.
He sent it to them via homing pigeon or bicycle courier or something.
Never let the truth get in the way of a good
"nailing his protest to the door of the church" story.
Image from
here.

In 1776 a pamphleteer called Thomas Paine** anonymously published a pamphlet called “Common Sense”. It would become the rallying call for the American War of Independence as it was copied and handed out across the country.

Feeling edumacated?

Now, go back to the top of this page and read it again:
  • Replace the word pamphlet with blog.
  • Replace the word pamphleteer with blogger.
  • Replace the word copied with shared.
 
New Media? Really?
 
 

Read any good pamphlets lately?

* Yes I know Martin Luther was many things besides being a pamphleteer. Shhhh!

** See above *. Insert "Thomas Paine" where you see "Martin Luther".

 

 

11 comments:

  1. Brilliant. Very interesting food for thought M!

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    1. Thanks Kelly! Occurred to me while I was watching a documentary on the Protestant Reformation. I am a terrible nerd. ;-)

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  2. How darn true! I'm surprised that this isn't common knowledge... maybe they're all still reading their pamphlets? ;) xx

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    1. LOL Maybe so. Who knew we pre-dated journalism???! ;-) x

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  3. Are you saying bloggers have an abundance of commonsense? ;) Worth a pamph, that.

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  4. I love pamphletts, you get so many bargains in them!

    Bloggers, not so much!

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    1. LOL I reckon pamphlets might have changed over the years... Thanks for dropping by! x

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  5. THIS. Is awesome. But I do think Anon above has not yet read the 'Effective Pamphleting Manual'.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you!

      Yes indeed. I'm about to delete Mr Anon. Slipped though the spam filter! xxxx

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