The Middle Class and Publishing Industry 06

作者：admin  点击次数：29  发布时间：2025-02-21

In their writings, journalists use various ways to describe "the masses", just as in our own discourse, from neutral to curse to praise (such as "people", "civilians", "foolish people", "nationals"), etc., which loses the rigor of sociological reference. Who is called the nationals and who is called the mediocre people often changes based on the different emphases of the reformers' social tasks. For example, when journalists speak out against the government on behalf of the masses, they often use powerful and eloquent rhetoric to describe the masses as the only promising organism; when journalists try to promote and inspire the lower classes to take action, they often denounce the weaknesses, political ignorance and selfishness of the mediocre people.
The Times newspapermen took into account the political immaturity of ordinary people. In order to make the objects of reform more acceptable, they invented many new forms to make printed products easier to understand, making them more concise, direct and colloquial. In order to make illiterate citizens understand, the newspapermen designed new cultural communication practices to convey their information to the countryside. Firmly believing in not only expressing and conveying information but also inspiring their compatriots, the newspapermen established information organizations and promoted various social and political movements, bringing more and more compatriots into the process of reform. As a result, the new citizens in the middle field of the late Qing Dynasty gradually formed a loosely structured political role, not only existing in the imagination and texts of reformist newspapermen, but also as participants in the movement to strengthen the country and rebuild national pride.