Impresores que escriben, periodistas que editan en tiempos de crisis y revolución (España 1780-1823)
Abstract
The purpose of this paper has been to address a collective biography of a group of Spanish journalists from the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, which allow us to better see the inflections produced both in practice as well as the definition of a trade, which was badly defined at its start. Based on the biographical notes of the most recognized personalities, the evolution of those first publicists is characterized by the plurality of origins of these members who practiced journalism: recognized authors, critical and independent writers, organic intellectuals or those who confessed to be “popular authors”. All of them submitted to the conditions imposed by the periodicity and the own vicissitudes of a complex period. These difficulties purified not only the publications but the publishers and writers, which, already in 1800, had started to be called journalists. This name sought to underline the professionalism of their works and its most important consequences were: the adoption of a specific language, the will to attract a wide audience and the unmistakable character of the merchandise of the product that came out from their presses. But newspapers and its actors were determined by political conjuncture and three general suspensions of newspapers publications. It is for this reason that the study has been structured in four periods: 1780-1808; 1808-1814; 1814-1820 and 1820-1824.Likewise, the paths of prominent figures who cross several periods are emphasized, which branched off in 1808, the same as in 1814 or in 1820, but they knew how to take advantage of the weaknesses of a certain tolerance, or the experience of exile, to restart their publications and reinitiate their continuous journalistic activity once again.
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