A History of News

• 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

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 QuarterlyPraise 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