The Media and the Road to Modernity | 65published, not counting forty thousand flyers (Reichardt 2008b: 234). The
number of pages increased and circulation shot up: the Gazette Universelle had
a daily circulation of eleven thousand copies, the Journal du Soir ten thousand.
Now local events completely took over centre stage in place of foreign policy.
Contents no longer differentiated between opinion and news. The dividing
line between often short-lived newspapers and flyers that sometimes appeared
in numbered form was often blurred. They were now sold on the street, where
headlines were shouted out or texts read aloud. In like manner clubs of news-
paper subscribers sprang up, with articles often being read out at the begin-
ning of meetings. Foreign observers in particular noted with amazement that
everyone in Paris was suddenly reading newspapers (Gough 1988: 233).
In order to appeal to the illiterate segments of the populace, pictures
were accorded a pivotal role. On the one hand, religious images or statues of
monarchs fell victim to iconoclastic destruction, yet on the other, symbols of
the new order were displayed, some even designed by artists and paid for by
the Committee for Public Safety. The destruction of the Bastille or insulting
depictions of clerics or aristocrats were among the predominant motifs (Reich-
ardt, in Dowe 1998: 193–200). In general the media were eclectic, mixing ele-
ments of oral communication (songs, dirges, rumours, sermons) with written
ones (Reichardt 2008b: 258f.). Thus a multifaceted form of public discourse
influenced by the media came into being, something that had already been
developing in England over many decades.
The self-concept of these journalists differed markedly from what it had been
prior to 1789. They no longer saw themselves as chroniclers but rather as politi-
cal educators and people’s advocates. It was above all the radical journalists who
now viewed themselves as judges and investigative champions fighting against
corruption and counter-revolutionary forces. As was the case in the United
States, journalism provided a springboard to leading positions in politics. Jean
Paul Marat (in his paper L’Ami du peuple), Camille Desmoulins (Révolutions de
France et de Brabant), Jacques Pierre Brissot (Mercure Française among others)
and Jacques-René Hébert (Le Père Duchesne) became key figures of the Revo-
lution (Gough 1988: 173, 231). Journalists were drawn from all social classes
and sometimes even included aristocrats and clerics (Murray 1991: 187). As in
North America, newspapers had the function of shaping political parties. They
were not merely the mouthpieces of the clubs but rather their crystallisation
point. The press discussed and legitimised decisions. Now that the legislative
process had become public, the press acted as its monitor, debating pivotal
questions such as whether to execute the King or declare war. Campaigns in the
radical media promoted events such as the famous ‘March of the Market Wives’
to Versailles, thereby according them collective significance. The monarchist
press, too, profited from the new freedom and launched protest campaigns in
their turn, especially after 1790 (Gough 1988: 233, Murray 1991: 105f.).