What is news? Why are we so eager to exchange it? Why does it so often seem sensational? How does the way news is gathered and presented affect our politics and our lives? A History of News, Third Edition, provides an extended, international history of journalism that ranges from preliterate societies to the digital age. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of news and provides unique insights into contemporary journalism. Author Mitchell Stephens, an accomplished writer and media critic, analyzes news in all of its manifestations--spoken, written, visual and digital--from an international perspective. For the third edition, Stephens has broadened the scope of the book's international coverage, expanded the section on television news, increased coverage of women and minorities and added new material on the Internet and the digital revolution. The book also features an updated timeline, questions at the end of each chapter and new boxes, many of which underline connections between older news systems and issues in contemporary journalism.

A Chronology Introduction PART I: SPOKEN NEWS 1. Why News?--The Thursty Desyer that All Our Kynde Hath to Know The Need for News--A Social Sense The Urge to Tell 2. News in Preliterate Societies--In the Ordinary Way "Human Wireless Telegraphy" The Amplification of News--Messengers, Criers and Minstrels Newsworthiness The Edge of the World 3. The Survival of Spoken News--Publishing the Whisper of the Day Coffeehouses and Nouvellistes The Decline of Spoken News PART II: WRITTEN NEWS 4. News and Literacy--The First Story that Comes to Hand The Demands of News News and History 5. News and Empire--The Thought Stream of the Group Mind News of Rome News Through China News Across Europe "Cosmopolitan Commerce" PART III: PRINTED NEWS 6. Controlling the News--The Undeceiving of the People News Management and Manipulation--The Newsbook Press Controls A Fear of Controversy Chauvinism--The News Ballad 7. Human Interests (Faits Divers)--Such a Deal of Wonder Published Gossip News of Crime Sensationalism Moralizing The Supernatural "Popular" Journalism 8. The Logic of News (Faits Isoles)--People Biting Dogs The Extraordinary The Conventional The Unexpected PART IV: NEWSPAPERS 9. The First Newspapers--Expecting the News News in Venice--The Gazette News from Amersterdam--The Coranto An Editor in London 10. The Power of the Periodical--Domesticating News Home News--The Breadth of the Newspaper News of Science--The Authority of the Newspaper News of Business--The Speed of the Newspaper 11. News and Revolution--A Junction of All the People The American Revolution The French Revolution A Free Press 12. Mass Circulation--For All The Penny Press and Newspaper Ownership Other Voices The New Journalism and Consolidation Tabloids and Corporations PART V: REPORTING 13. Before Reporting--No Data by Which We Can Correctly Reason The Haze The Print Shop 14. The Development of Reporting--The Journalistic Method Enterprise Observation Investigation--The World Asked to Explain Itself The Veneration of the Fact Objectivity Controlling the News--Still PART VI: ELECTRONIC NEWS 15. New Technologies--Improved Means to an Unimproved End Radio--An Electronic Meeting Place Television--The Distant Newsmonger 16. The Information Explosion--A Surfeit of Data Publicity The Weight of the Present--News, Rumors and Ideas The Future of News Endnotes Bibliography Credits Index

Mitchell StephensProfessor of Journalism and Mass Communication, New York University

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