The Gold Coast Gazette & Commercial Intelligencer (GHA, 1822-1825)

June 21, 2011

Roy Alden Atwood 1822, Africa, Alphabetical Order, Colonial Papers, Commercial Papers, Frontier Papers, G, Ghana, State or Government Papers Leave a comment

Publication History:

Place of Publication:  Ghana, West Africa

Frequency: Unknown

Volume and Issue Data: April 21, 1822-1825

Size and Format: “handwritten;” semi-official organ of the colonial government

Editor/Publisher: Sir Charles MacCarthy, governor of the British Gold Coast settlements

Title Changes and Continuation: Unknown

General Description and Notes:

According to Jennifer Hasty’s history of the press in Ghana,

The first newspaper, The Gold Coast Gazette and Commercial Intelligencer, was published from 1822-25 by Sir Charles MacCarthy, governor of the British Gold Coast settlements. As a semi-official organ of the colonial government, the central goal of this Cape Coast newspaper was to provide information to European merchants and civil servants in the colony. Recognizing the growing number of mission-educated Africans in the Gold Coast, the paper also aimed at promoting literacy, encouraging rural development, and quelling the political aspirations of this class of native elites by securing their loyalty and conformity with the colonial system.

The appropriation of print media by local African elites began in mid-century with the publication of The Accra Herald by Charles Bannerman, son of a British lieutenant governor and a princess from the Asante royal family. Handwritten like MacCarthy’s former colonial paper, The Accra Herald was circulated to some 300 subscribers, two-thirds of them African. Enduring for 16 years, the success of Bannerman’s paper stimulated a proliferation of African-owned newspapers in the late nineteenth century . . . (emphasis added)

Governor MacCarthy was later killed in the First Ashanti war. His death and the claim that the victorious natives used his skull as a drinking cup did nothing to improve relations between the British and the coastal tribes. At least two other Ashanti Wars were fought in the 19th century.

Information Sources:

Bibliography:  John D. Chick, “The Asanti Times: A Footnote in Ghanaian Press History,” African Affairs, 76:302 (1977), p. 80 (fn.3); “The Story of Africa: African History from the Dawn of Time,” BBC World Service, accessed August 18, 2011; Jennifer Hasty, “Ghana,” World Press Encyclopedia (2003);  JenniferHasty,  Big Language and Brown Envelopes: The Press and Political Culture in Ghana,  Ph.D. Dissertation, Duke University, 1999

Locations:  Unknown

Acta Diurna (IT, 59 B.C.-ca. A.D. 222)

June 20, 2011

Roy Alden Atwood 059 B.C., A, Alphabetical Order, Community Papers, Italy, State or Government Papers 2 Comments

Publication History:

Place of Publication: Rome, Italy (capital of the Roman Empire until its move to Constantinople)

Frequency: Possibly daily

Volume and Issue Data: Beginning 59 B.C. to circa A.D. 222

Size and Format: Variable; handwritten on stone tablets, metal (lead plates), papyrus and/or vellum/parchment, or early bulletin boards

Editor/Publisher:  Unknown, variable

Title Changes and Continuation: None

General Description and Notes:

These are among the earliest examples of a regularly published proto-newspaper.

According to media historian Mitch Stephens, the Acta were one of several early forms of news publication:

Rome had a particularly sophisticated system for circulating written news, centered on the acta — daily handwritten news sheets, which were posted by the government in the Roman Forum from the year 59 B.C. to at least A.D. 222 and which were filled with news of such subjects as political happenings, trials, scandals, military campaigns and executions. China, too, had early government-produced news sheets, called the tipao, which were first circulated among officials during the Han dynasty (202 B.C. to A.D. 221) and were printed at some point during the T’ang dynasty (618 to 906). (Stephens, “History of Newspapers,” for Collier’s Encyclopedia)

Acta Diurna (Latin: Daily Acts sometimes translated as Daily Public Records) were daily Roman official notices, a sort of daily gazette. They were carved on stone or metal and presented in message boards in public places like the Forum of Rome. They were also called simply Acta or Diurna or sometimes Acta Popidi or Acta Publica.

The first form of Acta appeared around 131 B.C. during the Roman Republic. Their original content included results of legal proceedings and outcomes of trials. Later the content was expanded to public notices and announcements and other noteworthy information such as prominent births, marriages and deaths. After a couple of days the notices were taken down and archived (though no intact copy has survived to the present day).

Sometimes scribes made copies of the Acta and sent them to provincial governors for information. Later emperors used them to announce royal or senatorial decrees and events of the court. Tacitus and Suetonius apparently used these Acta as sources of information about the empire’s early emperors in their histories of Rome.

Other forms of Acta were legal, municipal and military notices. Acta Senatus were originally kept secret, until then-consul Julius Caesar made them public in 59 B.C. Later rulers, however, often censored them.

Publication of the Acta Diurna stopped when the seat of the emperor was moved to Constantinople. (From Wikipedia)

Acta Diurna’s state-appointed reporters, called “actuarii,” gathered information on events ranging from wars and legal decisions to births, deaths, and marriages. (From the World Association of Newspapers)

Information Sources:

Bibliography: Leclerc, Des journaux chez les Romains (1838); Renssen, De Diurnis aliisque Romanorum Actis (1857); Hubner, De Senatus Populique Romani Actis (1860); Gaston Boissier, Tacitus and other Roman Studies (Eng. trans., W. G. Hutchison, 1906), pp. 197-229  (From Classic Encyclopedia [11th ed.,  Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911]); C.T. Cruttwell, A History of Roman Literature (1877), pp. 206-207; Mitch Stephens, A History of News (1996); Mitch Stephens, “History of Newspapers,” for Collier’s Encyclopedia.

Locations:  No known genuine extant fragments