It describes communication practices from the beginning of human civilization to the pre-independence era in India. Also highlighted vernacular press in India.

1. HISTORY OF THE PRESS
Dr. J.JANARDHAN, Assistant Professor, JGI

2. HISTORY OF PRESS…
People used to follow different methods to communicate
Speech
Writing
Acta-Diura
Letter Blocks
Guttenberg’s Press

3. HISTORY OF PRESS…SPEECH
Speech is the systematic way of communication
Human civilization started with the development of speech.
But, at that time the communication was poor, unclear
Over 10,000 years ago, systematically started using language
Sanskrit and Hebrew are regarded as the oldest languages of
the World.

4. WRITING…
Ancient people carved some signs and symbols on caves,
trees, stones etc.
The habitual signs gradually turned to be alphabets to them.
Chinese alphabets are nothing other than the past used
pictures.

5. ACTA-DIURA
The Roman term ‘Act-Diurnal’ literally means daily activities
It is like the gazette of the Roman government.
Roman Emperor Julius Caesar in 59 B.C used to inform his
soldiers about the wars.
Caesar wanted to inform the public about important social and
political happenings.
It was the first mass media tool used ever in the history

6. LETTER BLOCKS
China used wooden blocks for publication
It was used to print in paper and clothes
It was an idea to put embroidery in the fancy clothes
Later, Chinese started metal blocks for the printing
purpose.
Similarly, Aryans used different stamps to print many
alphabets in Indus Valley civilization.

7. DISSEMINATION OF NEWS...
Dissemination of news spans the growth of technology
and trade
Earlier, word of mouth was the primary source of news
Merchants, sailors and travelers brought news
Pedlars and travelers spread the news from town to town

8. MOVING PRINTING PRESS…
Later on, Printing press was developed
Johannes Guttenberg invented printing press in 1453.
It relied on moving metal type
He printed 300 Bibles and exported to Paris
It became a significant milestone in the media history.
History of modern mass media begun from this point

9. HISTORY OF PRINTING PRESS…
The Chinese were the first to invent the art of printing
In 600 AD, they made wooden blocks to print letters
The ‘Buddhist scripture’ of 684 AD is the oldest known
surviving printed work
It is now available in a calligraphy museum in Tokyo
“Diamond Sutra” The first printed book published in
China by Wang Chick in 868 AD

10. HISTORY OF PRINTING PRESS…
Buddhist scriptures printed in 1377 are preserved in
museums in China

11. HISTORY OF PRINTING PRESS…
The Egyptians made paper by 3500 BC,
It came to Europe only by the 11th century.
The first paper mill in Europe was set up in Spain in 1120.
Block printing came to Europe by 1300.
It is believed that Johannes Gutenberg had developed
printing technology around 1439

12. HISTORY OF PRINTING PRESS…
Hand written news sheets were popular in Venice in 1566
In 1609, ‘Strasbourg’ The first printed newspapers were published
as weekly in Germany
The first English-language newspaper, ‘Corrant out of Italy,
Germany, etc., was published in Amsterdam in 1620.
‘La Gazette’ the first France newspaper was published in 1631.
‘The Daily Courant’ the first successful English daily was
published from 1702 to 1735.

13. HISTORY OF PRINTING PRESS…
On 7th
Nov, 1665, The London Gazette began publication.
In 1690, Benjamin Harris published ‘Publick Occurrences’
It is considered the first newspaper in the American
colonies.

14. HISTORY OF PRINTING PRESS…
Printing technology came to India in 1556.
St. Francis Xavier published ‘Doctrina Christa’ in Portuguese
It was the first printed book in India.

15. PENNY PRESS
In 19th
Century, the price of USA newspapers were
expensive as in Europe
A young journalist started news on 3rd
Sep, 1833

16. PENNY PRESS…
The newspaper was on four letter-size pages
Filled with human interest stories, short police reports,
crime stories, sex scandals, etc
It became more famous for its low price
The low price made the labor and lower classes to
purchase a paper

17. THE FIRST NEWSPAPER IN INDIA
William Bolts, announced the first newspaper in India in
1776.
He asked people to come to residence to read the news
This newspaper had the two functions
Informing the British community of news
Ventilating grievances against the colonial rule

18. HICKY’S GAZETTE
James Augustus Hicky credited launching of the first India
English newspaper-Bengal Gazette on 29th
Jan, 1780
It has another title “Calcutta Advertiser” & popularly known
as “Hickey’s Gazette”.

19. HICKY’S GAZETTE
It was weekly political and commercial paper
He describes that ‘it opens to all parties, influenced by
none’
His objective was to explore the British Administrative’
private affairs
Year later, Sir Warren Hastings denied all postal facilities

20. HICKY’S GAZETTE
Hicky considered the liberty of the press to be essential
In June, 1781, Hicky was arrested
He was stopped from bringing out the ‘Hicky’s Gazette’
In1780, Indian Gazette, appeared from Kolkata
It was much better in quality with 4 pages of 16 inches long
The types were better and had three columns

21. EARLY JOURNALISM IN BENGAL…
After 1790, ‘The Asiatic Mirror’was started
In 1795, The Indian World, The Calcutta Courier, The Indian Apollo
begun
The Bengal Harakaru was Started by Charles Maclean in 1795
In 1798, The Calcutta Morning Post & Oriental Star were started
There was a war b/w British Administration and the press
In 1799, Lord Wellesley introduced the press censorship in Bengal

22. EARLY JOURNALISM IN BENGAL…
Under the British rule, Fourth Estate was seized
William Duane, Irish-American editor was suffered
He started ‘Bengal Journal’

23. EARLY JOURNALISM IN BENGAL…
Lord Cornwallis issued an order for arresting William
Duane
Later, He couldn’t continued as Bengal Journal’s editor
In 1795, he then started ‘Indian World’

24. EARLY JOURNALISM IN BOMBAY…
In 1789, first English newspaper, ‘The Bombay Herald’
appeared & It was a weekly
The second N.P from Bombay ‘The Bombay Courier’ was
founded in 1790.
Luke Ashburner, Alderman were the editors
The Bombay Gazette was established in June 1791

25. EARLY JOURNALISM IN BOMBAY…
The Courier- Changed to The Bombay Times on 3rd
November, 1838.
It was fore runner of ‘Times of India’

26. EARLY JOURNALISM IN BOMBAY…
The Govt. ordered to submit the copies to pre-censorship
Later, Bombay Herald was announced as Govt. paper
They deliberately avoided the conflict with Govt.

27. EARLY JOURNALISM IN MADRAS…
Richard Johnston founder of the first newspaper in Madras
The Madras Courier existed on 12th
Oct, 1785.
It was officially recognised by authorities
It was a weekly with four pages

28. EARLY JOURNALISM IN MADRAS…
In 1795, Robert Williams started ‘Madras Gazette’ –Weekly
In 1795, Indian Herald was started by Humphreys
Censorship was introduced on 12th
Dec, 1795
The press in Madras began to feel early the heavy hand

29. THANKYOU