The invention of news : how the world came to know about itself / Andrew Pettegree

Contributor(s):

Pettegree, Andrew

Material type: Text

0300212763 (paperback)
9780300212761 (paperback)

Subject(s):

Journalism -- Europe -- History

DDC classification:

302.23 PET

Summary: Long before the invention of printing, let alone the availability of a daily newspaper, people desired to be informed. In the pre-industrial era news was gathered and shared through conversation and gossip, civic ceremony, celebration, sermons, and proclamations. The age of print brought pamphlets, edicts, ballads, journals, and the first news-sheets, expanding the news community from local to worldwide. This groundbreaking book tracks the history of news in ten countries over the course of four centuries. It evaluates the unexpected variety of ways in which information was transmitted in the premodern world as well as the impact of expanding news media on contemporary events and the lives of an ever-more-informed public. Andrew Pettegree investigates who controlled the news and who reported it; the use of news as a tool of political protest and religious reform; issues of privacy and titillation; the persistent need for news to be current and journalists trustworthy; and people\'s changed sense of themselves as they experienced newly opened windows on the world. By the close of the eighteenth century, Pettegree concludes, transmission of news had become so efficient and widespread that European citizens-now aware of wars, revolutions, crime, disasters, scandals, and other events-were poised to emerge as actors in the great events unfolding around them

Fiction notes: Click to open in new window

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Standard Loan	LSAD Library Main Collection	302.23 PET (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		39002100561910

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The extraordinary history of news and its dissemination, from medieval pilgrim tales to the birth of the newspaper

Long before the invention of printing, let alone the availability of a daily newspaper, people desired to be informed. In the pre-industrial era news was gathered and shared through conversation and gossip, civic ceremony, celebration, sermons, and proclamations. The age of print brought pamphlets, edicts, ballads, journals, and the first news-sheets, expanding the news community from local to worldwide. This groundbreaking book tracks the history of news in ten countries over the course of four centuries. It evaluates the unexpected variety of ways in which information was transmitted in the premodern world as well as the impact of expanding news media on contemporary events and the lives of an ever-more-informed public.

Andrew Pettegree investigates who controlled the news and who reported it; the use of news as a tool of political protest and religious reform; issues of privacy and titillation; the persistent need for news to be current and journalists trustworthy; and people's changed sense of themselves as they experienced newly opened windows on the world. By the close of the eighteenth century, Pettegree concludes, transmission of news had become so efficient and widespread that European citizens--now aware of wars, revolutions, crime, disasters, scandals, and other events--were poised to emerge as actors in the great events unfolding around them.

Long before the invention of printing, let alone the availability of a daily newspaper, people desired to be informed. In the pre-industrial era news was gathered and shared through conversation and gossip, civic ceremony, celebration, sermons, and proclamations. The age of print brought pamphlets, edicts, ballads, journals, and the first news-sheets, expanding the news community from local to worldwide. This groundbreaking book tracks the history of news in ten countries over the course of four centuries. It evaluates the unexpected variety of ways in which information was transmitted in the premodern world as well as the impact of expanding news media on contemporary events and the lives of an ever-more-informed public. Andrew Pettegree investigates who controlled the news and who reported it; the use of news as a tool of political protest and religious reform; issues of privacy and titillation; the persistent need for news to be current and journalists trustworthy; and people\'s changed sense of themselves as they experienced newly opened windows on the world. By the close of the eighteenth century, Pettegree concludes, transmission of news had become so efficient and widespread that European citizens-now aware of wars, revolutions, crime, disasters, scandals, and other events-were poised to emerge as actors in the great events unfolding around them

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

List of Maps (p. vi)
Introduction: All the News that's Fit to Tell (p. 1)
Part I The Beginnings of News Publication
1 Power and Imagination (p. 17)
2 The Wheels of Commerce (p. 40)
3 The First News Prints (p. 58)
4 State and Nation (p. 76)
5 Confidential Correspondents (p. 96)
6 Marketplace and Tavern (p. 117)
7 Triumph and Tragedy (p. 139)
Part II Mercury Rising
8 Speeding the Posts (p. 167)
9 The First Newspapers (p. 182)
10 War and Rebellion (p. 208)
11 Storm in a Coffee Cup (p. 230)
Part III Enlightenment?
12 The Search for Truth (p. 251)
13 The Age of the Journal (p. 269)
14 In Business (p. 289)
15 From Our Own Correspondent (p. 308)
16 Cry Freedom (p. 326)
17 How Samuel Sewall Read his Paper (p. 346)
Conclusion (p. 362)
Notes (p. 373)
Bibliography (p. 408)
Index (p. 429)
Illustration Acknowledgements (p. 443)
Acknowledgements (p. 444)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Andrew Pettegree is professor of modern history, University of St. Andrews, and founding director of the St. Andrews Reformation Studies Institute. He lives in Fife, Scotland.