Hartikainen, Jouko

"The Vicious Inclination of hunting after ridiculous Newspapers and Pamphlets": War News as controversial public entertainment in early eighteenth-century Britain

This article examines the role of war news from abroad as public entertainment in Britain during the early decades of the eighteenth century. To gain new insights into the public sphere in this article, I intend to establish an image of the role the foreign news of wars had as entertainment among the news-reading public. I also discuss related literary reactions to this public by analysing period printed texts about the issue of war news as a public pastime. I furthermore explore the role and perceptions of the news writers as producers of this entertainment. The foreign war news from abroad became so constant due to the various European military clashes that when a more peaceful time arrived in the 1720s, the news writers had to find other news to keep the people interested in their papers. In period commentaries there was clearly an underlying consensus of foreign war news discussion as casual and largely carefree public entertainment, even if there were at times also political passions regarding especially the kingdom's foreign policy. This casual news reading culture was sometimes frowned upon by commentators who associated the news readership with idle men of the coffee houses of London. I also show that the news writers were sometimes seen as immoral when they were exploiting the readers' curiosity by writing about such miserable events. While this article is intended to be introductory to this vast topic, it highlights the often overlooked importance of warfare and military news as instigators in the development of the early modern public sphere. The article aims to benefit researchers who seek to understand the historical development of Western public spheres during this period.

Keywords: war news reporting, public sphere, late Stuart England, early Hanoverian Britain, early modern press, public entertainment, newspaper history, media history

Cite: Hartikainen, Jouko 2025, Tapaustutkimus: Lähdekriittisyys sanomalehtiaineistossa historiallisessa kriminologiassa. Holistic Science Publications, Intellectual history archive, 41-61, Finland. https://www.holistic-science-publications.com/i-h-archive2/