An introduction to the History and Context of Journalism

Lecture number one begins around 1500 in Italy. The sun is shining, the grass is green, and the Italians are busy helping Europe to create a rennaissance. Art and archaeology flourished in and around this era, as did new forms of teaching such as 'humanism' and 'the new learning'. This encouraged philosophical discussion far more than it had been before, as well as an increase in literature and poetry.

Before this very little had happened culturally , in fact almost nothing had happened for over 1000 years, so surely with these new ideas and ways of life becoming common something had to change. The printing press was the invention to change everything. This was to become the first time that ideas could be captured and made readily available to others. This eventually gave rise to early journalists including Joseph Addison and Daniel Defoe. The impact that the printing press has had on the world is incredible and this is something that often goes unnoticed in our society.

The end of the 16th century up until the end of the 18th century are known as the enlightenment years. It is around these years that ancient philosophical ideas begin to face challenges, for example Plato's theory of forms; the idea that there is a perfect form of everything that can only be accessed through the world of the forms, (surely this is absurd, can there really be a perfect form of mud?) Atheism started becoming more common as did a more modern form of Philosophy arriving from the likes of Descartes and his Cogito (I think therefore I am.)

The key idea that came from this change in Philosophy was the rejection of pluralism and support for the idea that there are universal laws, and only one type of knowledge. This relates closely to Journalism as we must always be sure that we are always aspiring to one type of certain knowledge and one type of truth. We must adopt an empiricist philosophy rather than a rationalist one if we are to succeed in reporting truthfully and accurately. We must look for evidence as opposed to searching our own reason.

In the days that follow i am going to begin reading Bertrand Russel's "A Guide to Western Philosophy" If his famous radio interview with Catholic priest Father Frederick Copleston is anything to go by i am sure this will be an entertaining (yet challenging) task.

A Blog, of reasonably average proportions

Hello, my name is Sam, and worryingly for a journalism student, this is my first blog, I intend to update this throughout the year, keeping you posted on what I'm learning and anything else exciting that is happening in my life, or the life of anybody else of any significance. Ok maybe that's a little broad. Anyway I'm 18, I'm at The University of Winchester and i enjoy a variety of music (from Girls Aloud to Glasvegas via Barry White and The Beach Boys!) I'm also a lover of sport and in particular Football, as a keen Queens Park Rangers fan I tend not to see the beautiful game at it's most beautiful.