Media, Information and Technoculture 2000F/G Chapter : Jeffrey McNairn
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16 Nov 2011
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The most powerful engine of the human mind": the press and its readers . This reading focuses on the significance of the newspaper in the 1800"s. Mcnairn goes into detail about the positive effects of the newspaper, specifically the way it brought knowledge, entertainment and political information to people in upper canada. Newspapers were theatres for discussion because they encouraged people to read and discuss the issues of the day together (129). Newspapers provided people with an outlet for critical thinking and encouraged people to act. Illiterate as well as literate people received information from the newspaper because oftentimes it was read aloud by one person to a whole group of people in a coffee house or other informal setting. Newspapers kept political figures in check by calling them out on their mistakes or lies. By the 1820"s politics had begun to dominate the content of most newspapers.