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The Image of the Journalist in France, Germany, and England, 1815–1848*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Lenore O'Boyle
Affiliation:
Connecticut College

Extract

The growth of the professions in the nineteenth century occurred as a process of specialization; distinct functions separated out of certain broad categories of activity. The church, the law, and medicine were the matrices from which new professions emerged and became differentiated in response to the growing needs of an increasingly complex society. The reasons for that complexity were in the main economic and stemmed from the industrialization of the first half of the century.

Type
Public Opinion
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1968

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References

1 It may be objected at the outset that journalism does not qualify as a profession, and if one adopts a rigorous definition of a profession, stressing possession of a systematic body of knowledge acquired through a long specialized training, then the objection is valid. Decisive, however, is the fact that journalism was commonly regarded in the nineteenth century as a profession and is now. It requires considerable education and experience, and the journalist does as a rule have access to certain information denied the ordinary person.

2 Karr, Alphonse, Les guêpes, 3 vols. (Paris, 1858), I, 9.Google Scholar On the French newspaper press during this period there is the standard work of Hatin, Eugène, Histoire politique et littéraire de la presse en France, 8 vols. (Paris, 18591861)Google Scholar, and the indispensable study by Collins, Irene, The Government and the Newspaper Press in France, 1814–1881 (New York, 1959).Google Scholar

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7 This was the world immortalized by Balzac, in Illusions Perdues.Google Scholar The Marxist critic Lukacs, George, Studies in European Realism (London, 1950), p. 49,Google Scholar has described this as a novel of disillusionment, the Don Quixote of the bourgeoisie. “Lost Illusions is a tragi-comic epic showing how … the spirit of man is drawn into the orbit of capitalism. The theme of the novel is the transformation of literature (and with it of every ideology) into a commodity and this complete ‘capitalization’ of every sphere of intellectual, literary and artistic activity. …” The interpretation is persuasively argued, but the reverse of Lukacs' thesis would seem to be nearer the truth. Balzac was describing the beginnings of a new profession, and his journalists were venal not so much because they lived in a capitalistic society as because their society was not capitalistic enough. With the development of capitalism all the professions were to expand, as the public demand for their services grew, and with this expansion the public understandably began to insist upon certain standards of efficiency and probity. The professions usually met this demand by regulating themselves rather than provoke outside control. Also their economic rewards increased as society grew richer, so that the incentive to dishonesty lessened.

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58 Schneider, G. H., Der Press- und Vaterlandsverein 1832/33 (Berlin, 1897), pp. 2223.Google ScholarBörne, L., “Briefe aus Paris”, Gesammelte Schriften, VI, 102,Google Scholar expressed warm approval of Wirth's proposal. Groth, O., Geschichte der deutschen Zeitungswissenschaft, pp. 114–16Google Scholar notes that there was discussion of this problem; Josef Görres was one to suggest that newspaper men be elected by the people.

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82 In regard to the extent of university attendance, the reader of Salomon, L., Geschichte des deutschen Zeitungswesen, III,Google Scholar cannot but note the high percentage of editors with the title of Dr. or Professor. Though one must bear in mind Laube's, H. remark, “Erinnerungen”, Gesammelte Werke, XL, 243:Google Scholar “… in Leipzig, every writer was called Doctor. …”

88 The editors listed by Salomon, L., Geschichte des deutschen Zeitungswesen, III,Google Scholar in almost all cases were originally professors, civil servants, pastors, lawyers, librarians, or military officers. The same picture is given by studies more restricted in scope: e.g. Hanspach, Werner, Die periodische Presse der Stadt Dresden in der ersten Hälite des 19. Jahrhunderts (Dresden, 1939);Google ScholarWitzleben, E. D., Geschichte der Leipziger Zeitung (Leipzig, 1860).Google ScholarBrunohler, Kurt, Die Redakteurs der mittleren und grösseren Zeitungen im heutigen Reichsgebiet von 1800 bis 1848 (Leipzig, 1933),Google Scholar on the basis of a study of ninety editors, concludes that editing was increasingly becoming a full-time occupation, that the greater number of editors came from the middle class, mainly from families of teachers and pastors, and that most had a university education. It must be born in mind, of course, that those journalists who did not rise to the rank of editor were probably in most cases from less educated and socially respectable backgrounds, but it seems safe to claim, in view of the nature of the profession and the structure of German society, that the great majority must have come from the lower middle class at least, and enjoyed a decent education.

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94 Ibid., p.745.

95 E.g., Westminster Review, XVIII (No. 35, 1833), 200–01, 206; XXXVII (No. 2, 1842), 416.Google Scholar

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100 Lytton, Edward Bulwer, England and the English, 2 vols. (London, 1833), II, 4344.Google Scholar

101 Francis Jeffrey as editor of the Edinburgh Review had risen as high in journalism as probably any man could, but he appeared to regard law as his real profession and complained about the amount of time he spent in editorial work, while his friend Sydney Smith commiserated with him and agreed as to the obvious superiority of legal practice in terms of money and honor. On the prestige of the great reviews see Jack, Ian, English Literature, 1815–1832 (= Oxford History of English Literature, 10) (Oxford, 1963), pp. 89.Google Scholar On Jeffrey see Clive, John, Scotch Reviewers: The Edinburgh Review, 1802–1815 (London, 1957), pp. 4345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar