How did a new reading public …

(i) With the advent of printing press a new reading public emerged. The books became cheaper as printing technology reduced the cost of production.
(ii) As books flooded the market, readership increased and books now reached to larger number of people.
(iii) Access to books created a new reading culture. Earlier reading was restricted to the elite only- common people lived in world of word culture who heard sacred text read out to them or ballads recited or folk tales narrated.
(iv) Now a reading public came into being. But book could be read only by literate people, keeping this point of view, printers published popular ballads and folk tales with lot of pictures which could be read to illiterate public. These ballads, tales could then be sung or read out to those who could not read.
(v) Thus printed material could be orally transmitted at gatherings and taverns. Reading public and hearing public thus got intermingled.