Table of Contents

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 Isolés)--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

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
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