News

Lore & Background

Throughout history, people have transported news through oral means, with evidence from Zulus, Mongolians, Polynesians, and American Southerners. Public gathering places like Greek forums, Roman baths, and English coffeehouses served as sites for news exchange. In the Muslim world, mosques and caravanserais on pilgrimages to Mecca were hubs for news. Town criers in medieval Florence announced political news, laws, and penalties, with specific protocols for plague announcements.

Reader's Guide

News is defined by its newness, distinguishing it from historical analysis. It describes events in isolation, often focusing on the unusual or deviant, as captured in the dictum 'Man Bites Dog' is news. The news industry treats news as a commodity, sold wholesale by agencies and enhanced for retail. Most purveyors value impartiality and objectivity, though sensationalism and bias are noted. Newsworthiness is determined by impact, conflict, proximity, prominence, and deviation from norms. War is a common topic due to potential personal danger. The history of news includes folk transmission, government proclamations, and the evolution of media from oral to digital, with technological advances increasing speed and influencing content.

Did You Know?

• The English word 'news' originated in the 14th century as a plural form of 'new'.
• Jessica Garretson Finch coined the phrase 'current events' in the 1890s.
• Town criers in 13th-century Florence were required to repeat proclamations forty times.

From Handwritten Sheets to the Printing Press

The earliest forms of news delivery emerged in Renaissance Europe, where merchants circulated handwritten newsletters among one another. These documents carried information about ongoing wars, economic conditions, and social customs, yet they were extremely scarce and no two copies were ever identical, since each was produced entirely by hand. The landscape shifted dramatically when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440. Movable type and ink made it possible to mass-produce newspapers at a fraction of the previous cost, transforming news from a rare luxury into an accessible commodity. By the late 1400s, the first printed news appeared in German pamphlets, though their content was often highly sensationalized. In England, The Weekly News was published in London in 1621, marking the first newspaper written in the English language, with several more titles following in the 1640s and 1650s. Across the Atlantic, Richard Pierce and Benjamin Harris published what is considered the first American newspaper in Boston in 1690, but it lacked the necessary government permission and was immediately suppressed.

Press Freedom and the Rise of Investigative Journalism

In colonial America, the boundaries of press freedom were tested early. In 1735, John Peter Zenger faced charges of seditious libel brought by New York Governor William Cosby. His attorney Andrew Hamilton argued successfully that newspapers should be free to criticize the government as long as their claims were truthful, and Zenger was acquitted. This principle was later enshrined in the First Amendment with the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791. Benjamin Franklin had already pushed the boundaries in 1729 by writing a more satirical, civically engaged form of newspaper. By the 1830s, the New York Sun pioneered a commercial, reportage-driven approach, and cheaper printing technology gave rise to penny papers that prioritized entertaining daily stories like murder and adventure over politics. In the early 1900s, Progressive Era journalists known as muckrakers used investigative reporting to expose the corrupt practices of government officials, becoming a vital force in the reform movement before public fatigue set in after 1912.

Broadcasting, Cable, and the Digital Convergence

The early 1920s brought radio into American homes, allowing millions of listeners to receive breaking news simultaneously, and advertisers quickly seized the opportunity to reach those captive audiences. Television's arrival prompted the Communications Act of 1934, which established that airwaves are public property, that commercial broadcasters receive licenses to use them, and that the central condition for use is serving the public interest, convenience, and necessity. Television news expanded significantly through the 1970s, and by 1990 more than half of American households had cable systems, while nationally oriented newspapers broadened their reach. The advent of the Internet introduced computer-assisted reporting and a blending of media formats, where a single reporter could prepare the same story for print, online publication, and a newspaper's affiliated cable station. This convergence marked a fundamental shift in how newsrooms operated and how audiences consumed information across multiple platforms.

Defining the Industry: Terminology and Structure

The word medium, plural media, refers to a carrier of something, whether that be information, art, or physical objects. A medium can provide transmission, storage, or both. The industries producing news and entertainment content are commonly called the media, much as the newspaper industry is called the press. In the late twentieth century, it became common to treat media as singular rather than the traditional plural. The term press itself derives from the printing press and serves as a collective designation for media vehicles engaged in journalism and informative communication, as opposed to pure propaganda or entertainment. Broadcasting, a major segment of mass media, involves distributing audio and video signals to a large audience, whether the general public or a substantial subset. Organizations can broadcast multiple channels simultaneously, while digital technology allows multiplexed programming with several channels compressed into one ensemble. News anchors interpret and present stories gathered by on-scene correspondents, in formats ranging from brief two-minute clips to extended documentary films exploring a subject in greater detail.

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