The Language of Madness - Essay Sample

Language is an important aspect of a human being. Without language, human beings could be as primitive as wild animals. The existing cruelty or passion is not in humans but in the language. The early newspapers used a subjective approach to delivering news to the target audience. In 1800 American history was transcribed by experienced people and written in the pages of the rural and urban newspapers.

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The ancient newspapers have been preserved in archives and libraries, therefore, it is precious sources for historical explorations. There is a range of information on the events, the position of women, and daily life between 1800 - 1900 that is empirical to researchers and professionals. The newspapers were written on rags and recycled linen (Vermont. Records of the Governor and Council of the State of Vermont ... 1879).

Considering the current newspapers, the verdict about the reliability of the content provided is majorly pegged on the firm and type of newspaper broadcasting the information. Most news read from press such as the New York Times may be deemed dependable and trustworthy by the readers just because of the reputability of the publisher. While reports from unpublished newspapers are readily quashed without necessarily deep thought on the content provided. Similarly, in the use of historical writings, the type of newspaper influence the use and interpretation of the information. It is, therefore, difficult to understand the bias and, coverage of the quality of the early newspapers especially when you are unversed with the newspaper.

Chronicling America provides databank for historical newspapers that are over 95 years old. The papers ranging from 1800 to 1900, therefore, allow researchers to access a wide range of information. The papers are, however, a heap of articles. The newspaper library is important as it enables readers to uncover articles in chronological records however it becomes difficult to find the articles as part of the newspaper. The users have therefore the responsibility of consolidating the article into a full magazine in order to have a perception of the first readers. The papers need to arrange into their cultural and social contexts in order to excerpt the information needed without bias. At the beginning of 1800, the publishing was almost similar to the business today (nyshistoricnewspapers.org). The papers had short coverage in terms of circulation, most firms had few workers. The work in the magazine production was a divided process of gathering the news and reporting, the gathered information was edited after which printing followed. Though printing was not common. The owner of the paper usually served as the reporter and editor of the news, the works only assisted in printing and distributing.

Men were the most common in the newspaper work, though rarely women worked as writers, editors and, publishers mostly to newspaper connected to voluntary work or religious denomination. Women also worked on government newspapers and sometimes assisted their husbands in publishing work. Some magazines though were barred to women (nyshistoricnewspapers.org). Therefore, the degree of contribution of women to historical newspapers will perhaps never be known due to inadequate records. Most papers were unnamed and those that were named used only pseudonyms or initials. For instance, a newspaper was written by a woman called Augustina Parsons in 1820 the publisher only identifies her as 'A, Parsons, so whoever does not know the person will not be able to distinguish whether it is written by a man or woman. The early newspaper publishing was highly politicized while today the newspaper claim to be non-partisan the historical papers were openly attached to a political party. They aired the views of the party that they were affiliated to. They were then funded by the political parties. The funding came in forms of government contracts and other political support

The chronological newspapers though had considerable variations, there were mutual characteristics. To start with, the newspapers had a first page that carried the title of the paper, it showed the place of publication, number, and date of publication. The page was also bearing the publisher's name, price, and motto. The other common characteristic of the magazine was the publisher box. The masthead appeared inside the newspaper. The short form of the newspaper name was contained in the strip. There was no much concern about the consistency or format of the paper. While some reserved the front page for news other papers had advertisements on the first page and news contained inside the paper. The 1849 paper on Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette was printed inside the newspaper while the top page was spared for advertisement. Articles from different papers could be reprinted in other newspapers with no big deal and vice versa. The city papers expanded the number of pages to about eight. The 'New York journal of commerce' published in 1850 had eight pages and 10 columns wide and is considered the longest in its period.

The advertisement was arranged in single columns making it difficult to isolate them from the news items. Almost half of the pages were filled with advertisements and distinguishing them from news stories is a bit complicated. The papers carried petite local news and they contained no local news. The authors capitalized mainly on politics, government, and trade, though there are those that also covered news on war, disasters and religion. Moreover, it also embodied poetry and fiction. The papers dealt with political issues, commerce and other social challenges. The newspapers prioritized ways of helping the black community rather a revolution. In 1828 there was the first Native American Newspaper that was tribal for Native Americans. The newspaper titled "Cherokee Phoenix" defended Cherokee and rights against the federal government (Chronicling America << Library of Congress). Few Native American and black newspapers were preserved. From the study of the chronological records: it is evident that language is laced with madness. But humans should learn not to idealize the crude language. No person wants to be associated with madness even when allied with this kind of thought. The historical and lucid is unexciting. The real humans like the mad without thinking of the condition for what madness looks like. Kids are mad but the good thing is that their madness is unconscious they play around with their surroundings and scream deep; they have no concept of time but have some control.

In conclusion, the chronological study of the 1800 records shows that the language has been used differently to propel various ideas. In politics, it was either used to criticize or promote the ideologies of the existing governance. It was also used to advertise businesses, to champion the rights of the people especially the black. The papers also fueled the tribal clashes for instance the magazine titled 'Native Americans' was purely tribal ("American Newspapers, 1800-1860). Therefore language has madness and it now inhabits people. It is human to decide not to fuel war, hatred, tribalism and all sorts of human inequities; which are either written or published in the newspapers or press.

Works Cited

"American Newspapers, 1800-1860: An Introduction." University Library, University of Illinois, www.library.illinois.edu/hpnl/tutorials/antebellum-newspapers-introduction/.

"The Daily Herald. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1886-1887, January 01, 1887, Image 1." Chronicling America << Library of Congress, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047239/1887-01-01/ed-1/seq-1/.

Nelson, William. American Newspaper Files, 1704-1800, and where They May be Found: Preliminary List, for Additions and Corrections. 1803.

NYS Historic Newspapers, nyshistoricnewspapers.org/.

Vermont. Records of the Governor and Council of the State of Vermont ... 1879.