The Printing Press

In the third week of class, Dr. Smith gave a fascinating lecture about the spread of innovations and the democratization of the media. The first invention that we discussed was the invention of the printing press in 1430. This innovation was unprecedented, and it allowed information to spread more rapidly than ever before. At the time of its invention, a vast majority of the population could not read or write. The device of the printing press threatened people in power who could read and write because they were scared of losing their control over those who could not. An article on the Flow of History website talks about the impact of the printing press and about how with the new invention, the Church no longer had control over articles that were being written. Now documents that the Church did not approve and threatened its power could be printed in mass. As a result, those who were scared of losing power started to put laws into place that helped them preserve their power. 

The printing press democratized communication, but a downside was that because of it the first licensing laws appeared. This was the beginning of prior restraint and subsequent punishment. They would put a prior restraint on publications stopping them before the writing was published, or give a subsequent penalty by punishing the author after something had been published. The elites who were scared to lose power and were trying to save their power by using prior restraints and subsequent punishment, but through this were putting constraints the person. Today this is not allowed because to stop someone from speaking and writing is the same as preventing them from being a person. Freedom to publish one's thoughts is a vital right a person possesses, which is why freedom of speech and the press are protected in the United States under the First Amendment. 

https://www.prepressure.com/printing/history/1400-1499