Dossier Presentation: The Catholic press and its multiple dimensions: source, publishing company, social and political player

Abstract

We start from a truism: it makes sense, and it is even profitable, to think of the history of the Catholic press as part of a chapter in the history of journalism in a broad sense. It is a press that was often militant, built in the light of a Catholic movement that aspired to a strong social and political presence, and that did not disdain, like modern political parties, including socialism, located at the antipodes of the ideological spectrum, recourse to the press. For this reason, the analytical resources to which we appeal to approach this press are similar to those that the historian can use for many other periodicals, either analyzing its own features as a political, factional and militant press, or combining them with others coming from a more professional type of press, which seeks to compete in the market.