Pamphlets, Commodification, Media Market Regulation, and Hegemony

Subtitle:A Transnational Inquiry into the Seventeenth-Century Print Industry in England, France, and the Netherlands

Pamphlet history provides early evidence of the mutually constitutive relation of
media commodification and political hegemony in the development of
parliamentarianism and capitalism. This article traces pamphlets’ history in
England, France, and the Netherlands. Pamphlets were first developed as a
medium for religious and political opposition but were soon recuperated by the
ruling classes as a medium of propaganda. As the tensions between vested
powers and opposition began to diminish, pamphlets evolved into a more
informative and dialogical medium. The regulatory regime of the media, which
was at first characterized by repressive censorship, gradually transformed into a
market-regulated media regime. Seventeenth-century pamphlets may be
considered the first extensively commoditized mass medium in media history

Keywords:Media history, 17th Century History, Hegemony, Media Industries, Pamphlets

Accessibility:Open