How Did a New Reading Public Emerge With the Printing Press? Explain.

The introduction of printing press brought the following changes – a new culture of reading emerged, cost of the books came down, the time and labour engaged publishing, produced multiple copies and the market got flooded with books.

Earlier, the society was divided into the oral culture and reading culture. The common people had the oral culture while only the rich people had the reading culture,

The common people heard the texts collectively which were read out or recited or narrated to them.

The reading culture was only limited upto the elites and they only read the books individually and silently. The reason behind this culture maybe the books expensive, produced less in numbers and also the literacy rate was very low inmost of the European countries.

To solve the problem of illiteracy as a bander in the wider reach of the printed books, the popular ballads and folk tales beautifully illustrated with pictures were published which were sung and recited in the village gatherings and the taverns in towns. Hence the line separating the oral culture and the reading culture started becoming blurred.