Baudelaire's disdain for newspapers highlighted a 19th-century consensus that the press, rife with horrors and sensationalism, was corrupting civilization and stifling literature.
Writers like Balzac and Maupassant portrayed journalism as a 'behemoth' devouring art and culture, depicting newspaper offices as 'whorehouses of thought' that degraded literary ideals.
Despite their critical views, many of the most vocal opponents of journalism were also journalists themselves, reflecting a complex relationship between media and literature.
The 19th-century perception of newspapers as a 'virus or narcotic' led to a cultural wariness about their effects on public psyche and productivity.
Collection
[
|
...
]