First Newspapers

There are some obvious differences between the historical papers and the modern papers today. One of those differences is how the papers are published, in terms of one being published solely in print, while the other can be published either in print or online. Another difference between the two is the audience that could potentially be reached. The early newspapers could only reach the people living in the general vicinity of where the paper would be published, and maybe in a few other areas surrounding there. Newspapers today, especially ones online, can reach a much wider audience. Newspapers that branch out into different social medias and use those to put news out as well as through the paper and a website open the doors to reaching many more people than they would if they simply kept to the printed newspaper. Now I'm not saying that physical newspapers are below digital ones in any way; I'm simply stating that one is able to reach a much larger audience than the other.

I don't think that the government should have control over what gets published simply because so many different things get published today that it would take a much longer time to go through everything and decide what should be allowed to stay published and what should be banned. With so many different online news websites, it would take a lot more work to try to contact one of those large companies and try to get one specific article taken down. Even if this was accomplished, there is a very slim chance that absolutely no one has already seen the article. There wouldn't really be any point in trying to take it down at that point, because it was already seen by people. Trying to get something that was printed banned is almost as impossible. Assuming that the government gets wind of it after it has been published, there are most likely other copies besides the one the government would see. If my knowledge of printing companies is correct, they make thousands and thousands of copies, depending on the demand for whatever is being published. This means that if the article or newspaper in question is published, let's say, country-wide, there are so many copies of it out there that destroying or obtaining every last copy would be impossible. Even in history, when newspapers were banned, at least one copy usually manages to survive. It's been happening for years, and it would no doubt happen again if the government somehow managed to make a law banning some sort of newspaper.

As I said above, the main reason why I think the government is prevented from closing down newspapers and other forms of media is because it would take such a long time to make any headway. Back in the days of the first newspapers, there weren't that many being printed, or at least not as much as there are today. This made it easier to keep track of who was publishing what, who said what about something, and how many people were reading it. Now, there are so many local and provincial newspapers that it would be very difficult to try to keep up to date with each and every one. Of course, it could probably be done, but definitely not by one person. I also think that, once again, the size of the audience reached would be so large in some cases that it probably wouldn't be worth it to try to get something taken down or removed. In some extreme cases, a story about the government trying to remove a story about the government may arise, and then it would be right back to the beginning.

I was actually a little surprised to learn that the first newspaper to be published in Canada was in Halifax, mainly because I consider the maritime provinces to be the ones that everyone forgets about. Compared to Quebec or Ontario or even the provinces to the west, we're extremely tiny, and nothing huge ever really happens here, or at least that's what I think. I expected the first newspaper to be published in one of those provinces, not in Halifax. I do think that it's cool that the first newspaper was published in Halifax rather than in one of the bigger cities, and I'm sure people who live there are proud that their home was the first to introduce the printed newspaper into Canada.