Converting Blocks into Wisdom? The Nineteenth-Century Pictorial Press
Résumé
This chapter offers a panorama of the British illustrated press with a focus on the years 1820–1880, completed with a selection of portraits of era-defining figures, bodies and publications. It examines the characteristic features of this period and the pioneering role of some of the new press proprietors in an increasingly competitive market affected by changing print techniques and consumption habits, and by the emergence of new forms of journalism: cheap sensationalism for the masses, international reporting for an educated elite, etc. It analyses the editorial strategies elaborated by diverse publications to foster a sense of national, partisan and/or class identity, and how this participated in projecting the image of Britain as a world power.