Chronique des faits divers dans le discours de presse transylvain du XIXe siècle
A Chronicle of the Miscellanea in the Transylvanian Journalistic Discourse of the 20th Century

Summary/Abstract: Despite its well-defined character laid down in the first issue of the magazine (Petcu 2003 : p. 22 - 25), “Gazeta de Transilvania” published not only articles inspired by the Romanian, French, even European political reality, but also articles that popularised scientific discoveries, literary works, as well as articles dealing with historical issues, ecclesiastic or military affairs. Although the orientation of the magazine was rather strict and in accordance with the information needs of the Transylvanian readers, there is a certain number of news-in-brief items, which add, in our opinion, a supplementary dimension to the editorial profile, i.e. the entertainment of readers to whom this magazine was addressed. The very reason of the establishment of the “Gazeta de Transilvania” aimed at filling the editorial void of the Romanian press in Transylvania. It is by no means the lack of George Bariţiu’s interest (who mainly focused on the education and training of his readers) which makes that subjects such as crimes, accidents, attacks and robberies be presented in the pages of “Gazeta de Transilvania”. We assume that the educational purposes of the articles are evident even throughout articles dealing with anti-social acts, because the attitude of the editor is, undoubtedly, a moralising one: he blames the crimes, he deplores the assassins, he demands their punishment and he is quite satisfied when justice is served.We bring forth, through our article, an inventory of news-in-brief, inspired by the then French society, published by “Gazeta de Transilvania” during the first six years of its existence (1838 – 1847). We tackle both the subject of the articles and the source of information concerning France and the French. The choice made by the Transylvanian editor between the press articles he read and which he decided to republish in his magazine with the aim of offering his country fellowmen a model of human behaviour, models of historical evolution and models of cultivating one’s language, one’s culture, in a nutshell, one’s spiritual values is noteworthy.

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