Scandal! Crime! Reality Television!

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            Have you ever wondered why reality shows have become a recent trend in the last decade or so? To answer this, one must go back to England during the Industrial Revolution to see the precedents of modern-day reality television and interest in celebrities. In Industrial Revolution England, gossip and the cult of celebrity was as large, if not larger, than it is now.  The Court Circular was established to put out news of the British royal family, that contained information about everything the members of the royalty did during the previous day, with information such as who went riding, who met foreign dignitaries, where everybody was, and other such information. Following that section, reports of court proceedings were printed, with special attention to detail given to ghastly reports of crimes committed. Thus, newspapers in the Industrial revolution fulfilled the niche that reality shows to today: they gave details of celebrity life and deplorable crimes to the public.

            The Court Circular was established by George III, who was angry at frequently incorrect and sensationalist reports of the royal family’s actions and movements during the day before. Additionally, it allowed the royal family control of gossip, so they could avoid the spread of nasty rumors through popular newspapers, which was a problem as frequently sensationalist reporters would misinterpret or even invent rumors to benefit both themselves and their newspaper through publicity. The establishment of the court circular benefited them twofold: It allowed them control of media coverage, and satisfied the public’s obsession with the royal family. This obsession is still very prevalent today, as the recent royal wedding shows. Thus, the Court Circular provided a means of control over peoples’ opinions of the royal family and allowed them to have control over their own celebrity.

            The front pages of the newspaper were often covered in personal advertisements and notices: this, besides being a source of revenue for the paper (as one had to pay the paper in order to get one’s advertisement or message on the front pages) provided small messages about marriages and marriage proposals. This served the function of letting people know about the engagement and usually publishing the address of the church so readers could attend the marriage. These personal messages were not only about marriages: they also contained job listings, information about deaths, and occasionally small obituaries. These, besides notifying the rest of the public about town goings-on, provided small windows into people’s daily lives, which allows us to learn more about what daily life was like in 19^th century London.

            Additionally, the paper printed details of crimes and court proceedings, so the public could be given graphic information about crimes kept up to date on court issues. These were undoubtedly for entertainment besides information, as they went into graphic detail about the crime committed, with the correspondent often wording the story in a particular manner in order to make it seem as exciting as possible. This was not unlike a modern-day police show, where the officers are shown chasing down, arresting the criminal, and dragging them to court. Full details about the court proceedings were also given, with information such as the deliberation time of the jury, names of lawyers, and the sentence almost always being given. Thus, newspaper police reports fulfilled the public’s lust for graphic details about crimes while providing information about the court proceedings and the status of the prisoner [defendant in today’s terminology].

            These sections of the newspaper are very similar to the modern reality show: In fact, they fulfilled the role of showing the public real –life (although often exaggerated) information. The publication of the Court Circular allowed the royal family and government direct control over what information about them and their daily lives was published, which is the ancestor of modern-day public relations companies, along with reality shows centered around the life of celebrities. This celebrity fascination still continues to the present day, especially around the royal family. This is exemplified by the recent royal wedding, where several of the author’s relatives gathered in a Minnesotan house to watch the wedding of two members of a foreign family, thousands of miles away. Additionally, the publication of personal things in the newspaper has correlations to modern-day life, with methods of communication such as the Internet taking the place of newspaper announcements. For example, instead of publishing news of a recent engagement in the newspaper, a couple may post video of the proposal on a video-sharing site such as YouTube, while a family could post news of a death online.

Two types of shows take the place of newspaper crime reports in the modern world: police reality shows, and police procedurals. Reality shows, such as Cops, show police officers on their rounds, arresting felons and providing cheap, heart-pounding entertainment, like the rather graphic crime reports of the Industrial Revolution did.  Police procedurals tell (fictional) tales of police officers investigating various crimes and prosecuting the criminals, often interspersed and combined with elements of drama and action. These are similar to the court reports of the Industrial Revolution, in that they both provide detail of court proceedings, often showing dramatic court proceedings and courtroom drama. Thus, newspapers in the Industrial Revolution took the place of reality shows today, with entertaining but realistically useless information being printed for the entertainment of the public.