Summary
Contents
The SAGE Key Concepts series provide students with accessible and authoritative knowledge of the essential topics in a variety of disciplines. Cross-referenced throughout, the format encourages critical evaluation through understanding. Written by experienced and respected academics, the books are indispensable study aids and guides to comprehension. Key Concepts in Journalism offers a systematic and accessible introduction to the terms, processes, and effects of journalism;a combination of practical considerations with theoretical issues; and further reading suggestions. The authors bring an enormous range of experience in newspaper and broadcast journalism, at national and regional level, as well as their teaching expertise. This book will be essential reading for students in journalism, and an invaluable reference tool for their professional careers.
Taxes on Knowledge
Taxes on Knowledge
This was the phrase used by critics to describe the various duties imposed by governments on nineteenth-century newspapers. The effect of these ‘taxes’ was to inflate the cover price of newspapers, thereby reducing their public availability. Abolition of these ‘taxes on knowledge’, along with developments in postal services, expansion of markets and advertising revenues, improvements in printing technology and the spread of working-class literacy, was a precondition for the emergence of modern mass circulation newspapers (Black, 2002: 171–200).
The advertising duty which taxed all newspaper advertisements was abolished in 1853, the newspaper stamp duty which imposed a fixed levy on the sale of each copy of a newspaper was withdrawn in 1855, while the paper duties which taxed the paper on which ...