The Pennsylvania Gazette

I chose to look at the April 15, 1742 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette. When I first opened the article, a few things stood out to me that were different. The first was that the title contained an odd shaped “s” in Pennsylvania that looked more like an “f” to me. I noticed that this letter appeared in the article any time there was an “s” in a word. This made the article a bit harder to read but I became more used to it the more I read. Another thing that stood out to me was the language used in the text. The article read differently to me than a modern newspaper would read today.  The diction and the printing gave me a different view on how writers and printers distributed information to the public. I can only imagine how these early people would respond to our current newspaper.

            As I was reading the article, I was doing a compare and contrast with the Gazette to our current newspapers. This particular article started off with an excerpt from the Gentleman’s Magazine that was a brief report of a Dutch ship bound for Spain. The bulk of the news from this article was particulars relating to the revolution in Russia and did not start until about the middle of the first page. It seems to me that newspapers today are all about having the big story the first thing that they see on the paper. This difference in the priority of news made it interesting for me to read. I wasn’t sure if there was going to be a main topic of interest or just several short pieces of news. This helped me pay attention to everything I was reading so that I wouldn’t miss something important.

            The actual content of the material was harder for me to relate to because of the different time frame and relevance of the material. However, I did try to correlate current events that I have heard and read about today to the current news in 1742. The news on the Russian revolution talked about Princess Elizabeth and her attempt to take the reins of the government in her hands. It helped me relate better to the article by thinking of current issues relating to power and authority such as the presidential election or the struggle for power in Middle Eastern countries. I tried to see myself reading a paper today with news from 1742.

            After the news on Russia, the paper became to look more familiar with advertisements and current issues relating to parliament, legislative acts, and legal proceedings. There is a column about dues to be paid and laws passed for the Library Company as well as news regarding local shipping. As I read this column, it reminded me of a small Philadelphia because it seemed to read like a small town paper. The last page consisted of mostly advertisements that pertained to land or work. This part of the paper seemed to be fairly similar to the end of our papers today that consist of want ads, advertisements, and coupons.

            Overall, the Pennsylvania Gazette took me back in time and helped me see what the early people of Pennsylvania were doing and what was important to them. I feel that newspapers today are much different from the Pennsylvania Gazette, but are also similar in many ways. News is always changing and people will always want to be updated on current events. Since the Gazette was one of the first papers printed, this was the only source of news that people had besides word of mouth. Today the news is all around us in TV, magazines, and billboards. However, newspapers were effective back then, and they are still effective today.