Abstract
This chapter focuses on the emerging Czech popular press in the period of rapid urbanisation and population movement at the turn of the 20th century, and on the experience of its readers, who found themselves caught between their traditional, rural mindset and the modernity of the city. The newcomers to urban areas needed a replacement for their oral traditions of sharing news and entertainment and were searching for a different cultural identity.
The sensational illustrated press became not only a guide to life in the new environment, but helped readers to develop a shared sense of urban selfhood. The discussion that follows examines the specific way the Czech sensational press blended traditional folk culture with modern urban popular culture to attract its new audience.
The key examples include Illustrirtes Prager Extrablatt (1879-1882), which was influenced by early print culture, such as murder ballads and popular fiction; and Pražský Illustrovaný Kurýr (Prague Illustrated Courier) (1893-1918) which, unlike other contemporary Central European sensational press publications, positioned itself between the rural and the metropolitan, the traditional and the modern. The latter will be discussed through analysis of its content as well as its illustrations, and by undertaking a comparison with other Central European press publications.