The press as a historical source: the imaginary of the nineteenth century in relation to progress, instruction and popularization of science

Abstract

The press, seen from a historic point of view, is considered a valuable source of information because it allows, through discourse analysis, to rebuild and understand different ideas about the world, perceptions of reality and collective imaginaries of an epoch and a specific society. This article discusses the philosophy of progress in the nineteenth century and how, through Aguascalientes’s newspapers, it became a relevant topic that had to be treated by public opinion. In the newspapers that were analyzed it was clear that there was a tight relationship between the idea of progress based on scientific education (positivism) and public education. Based on this, various newspapers from the second half of the nineteenth century had a clear focus on publishing scientific propaganda with the aim to educate the community in an informal way.