Kultur und Presse

At the beginning of the 20th century, the press played a highly influential role in the state and society, which academia, however, hardly acknowledged at the time. Consequently, journalists and publishers attempted to explain the significance of journalism to the general public, which resulted in a genre of practical handbooks referred to as ‘Praktikerliteratur’. The book entitled “Kultur und Presse” (“Culture and the Press”) by the Viennese editor, Emil Löbl, which was published in 1903, is regarded as the “most important, stimulating and effective piece of writing, which is also rich in facts and ideas, by a practitioner”. Löbl wanted to establish ‘press studies’ as an academic discipline based on his book, and many of his ideas, not least on the effects of the press, are still extremely relevant today, even though they are now being applied to new forms of the media.