Morally transforming the world or spinning a line? Politicians and the newspaper press in mid nineteenth-century Britain

David Brown

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

As mid Victorian newspapers spoke of their ever more important role as educators and representatives of the 'people', the rise of a free and independent press seemed central to notions of an age of 'improvement'. However, for many politicians, the press remained simply a tool to be exploited in order to advance their political agendas. By examining the relationship between politicians and metropolitan journalism in the mid nineteenth century, this article contrasts the claims of a press growing in confidence with those of an increasingly media-literate political class and argues that the press was in practice far more the instrument of politicians than the rhetoric suggests.
LanguageEnglish
Pages321-342
Number of pages21
JournalHistorical Research
Volume83
Issue number220
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2010

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politician
newspaper
nineteenth century
political agenda
political elite
journalism
rhetoric
confidence
educator
Nineteenth-century Britain
Politicians

Keywords

  • politicians
  • newspaper press
  • 19th century
  • Britain
  • world
  • spinning a line

Cite this

Brown, David. / Morally transforming the world or spinning a line? Politicians and the newspaper press in mid nineteenth-century Britain. In: Historical Research. 2010 ; Vol. 83, No. 220. pp. 321-342.
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Brown, D 2010, 'Morally transforming the world or spinning a line? Politicians and the newspaper press in mid nineteenth-century Britain' Historical Research, vol. 83, no. 220, pp. 321-342. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2281.2008.00482.x

Morally transforming the world or spinning a line? Politicians and the newspaper press in mid nineteenth-century Britain. / Brown, David.

In: Historical Research, Vol. 83, No. 220, 05.2010, p. 321-342.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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Brown D. Morally transforming the world or spinning a line? Politicians and the newspaper press in mid nineteenth-century Britain. Historical Research. 2010 May;83(220):321-342. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2281.2008.00482.x

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