Submit a one- to three-sentence thesis statement and a one- to two-paragraph description of your plan for the paper. The thesis will make a strong...

Among
the three possibilities that your assignment contains, one approach would address the third
example. It would be useful to examine eighteenth-century publications such as the English
popular magazines that developed from the increased social, public gatherings of coffee house
culture. These were The Tatler and The Spectator,
produced by Richard Addison and Joseph Steele from 1709€“1712, with some interruptions; in
combination, there were more than 700 issues. The author-editors, who generally assume pen
names, poke fun at many customs of the day, including the excesses and wastefulness of the
wealthy but also the pretentious social climbing of the rising middle class.

In The Spectator, the title refers to a fictional character
invented by the author-editors. Mr. Spectator writes a column that is aof other social columns
of the day, speaking from a detached but critical position: I live in the World, rather as a
Spectator of Mankind, than as one of the Species....

The papers have been
called the ancestor of modern magazines and occupy an important place in the historical
development of . They can productively be examined as foundational for contemporary popular
cultural communications, including blogging and podcasts. A comparative analysis might
accentuate the role of satirefor example in modern publications like The
Onionor the mass appeal of sensationalist papers such as the New York
Post.