A History of News / Edition 3

by Mitchell Stephens

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195189919
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/10/2006
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	9.22(w) x 7.54(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

New York University

Table of Contents

A ChronologyIntroductionPART I: SPOKEN NEWS1. Why News?—The Thursty Desyer that All Our Kynde Hath to KnowThe Need for News—A Social SenseThe Urge to Tell2. News in Preliterate Societies—In the Ordinary Way"Human Wireless Telegraphy"The Amplification of News—Messengers, Criers and MinstrelsNewsworthinessThe Edge of the World3. The Survival of Spoken News—Publishing the Whisper of the DayCoffeehouses and NouvellistesThe Decline of Spoken NewsPART II: WRITTEN NEWS4. News and Literacy—The First Story that Comes to HandThe Demands of NewsNews and History5. News and Empire—The Thought Stream of the Group MindNews of RomeNews Through ChinaNews Across Europe"Cosmopolitan Commerce"PART III: PRINTED NEWS6. Controlling the News—The Undeceiving of the PeopleNews Management and Manipulation—The NewsbookPress ControlsA Fear of ControversyChauvinism—The News Ballad7. Human Interests (Faits Divers)—Such a Deal of WonderPublished GossipNews of CrimeSensationalismMoralizingThe Supernatural"Popular" Journalism8. The Logic of News (Faits Isolés)—People Biting DogsThe ExtraordinaryThe ConventionalThe UnexpectedPART IV: NEWSPAPERS9. The First Newspapers—Expecting the NewsNews in Venice—The GazetteNews from Amersterdam—The CorantoAn Editor in London10. The Power of the Periodical—Domesticating NewsHome News—The Breadth of the NewspaperNews of Science—The Authority of the NewspaperNews of Business—The Speed of the Newspaper11. News and Revolution—A Junction of All the PeopleThe American RevolutionThe French RevolutionA Free Press12. Mass Circulation—For AllThe Penny Press and Newspaper OwnershipOther VoicesThe New Journalism and ConsolidationTabloids and CorporationsPART V: REPORTING13. Before Reporting—No Data by Which We Can Correctly ReasonThe HazeThe Print Shop14. The Development of Reporting—The Journalistic MethodEnterpriseObservationInvestigation—The World Asked to Explain ItselfThe Veneration of the FactObjectivityControlling the News—StillPART VI: ELECTRONIC NEWS15. New Technologies—Improved Means to an Unimproved EndRadio—An Electronic Meeting PlaceTelevision—The Distant Newsmonger16. The Information Explosion—A Surfeit of DataPublicityThe Weight of the Present—News, Rumors and IdeasThe Future of NewsEndnotesBibliographyCreditsIndex

Editorial Reviews

Praise for previous editions:

". . . thorough, scrupulous, and witty. . . A History of News is in all respects first-rate, and original, work."—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

". . . as a critical historian, his analysis is not only astute, but often elegant and even downright poignant . . . a book indispensable for its lucid demonstration that the news, while promising enlightenment, also promotes confusion."—Mark Crispin Miller, New York Times Book Review

"Stephens has produced a study of the concept of 'news' from prehistoric times to our own, and the book succeeds as a thoroughly accessible work about the history, anthropology, economics, psychology, and practical techniques of journalism."—Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

"Stephens . . . has given us an insightful and very different look at our communication past. . . . We do not have another communication history like this. . . . Perhaps we should make our students dive deeper. Perhaps we should ourselves. This book does."—Donald Lewis Shaw, Journalism Quarterly

From the Publisher