News

===Rise of the newspaper===
[[File:The London Gazette 28314.pdf|thumb|''The London Gazette'', "Published By Authority" (of the [[Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers|Stationers' Company]]) on 3 December 1909]]
{{See also|History of newspapers and magazines}}
The [[History of paper|spread of paper]] and the [[History of printing|printing press]] from China to Europe preceded a major advance in the transmission of news.<ref>Fang, ''History of Mass Communication'' (1997), pp. 20–23.</ref> With the spread of printing presses and the creation of new markets in the 1500s, news underwent a shift from factual and precise economic reporting, to a more emotive and freewheeling format. (Private newsletters containing important intelligence therefore remained in use by people who needed to know.)<ref>Pettegree, ''The Invention of News'' (2014), pp. 6–8. "So this sort of news reporting was very different from the discreet, dispassionate services of the manuscript news men. News pamphlets were often committed and engaged, intended to persuade as well as inform. News also became, for the first time, part of the entertainment industry. What could be more entertaining than the tale of some catastrophe in a far-off place, or a grisly murder? This was not unproblematic, particularly for the traditional leaders of society who were used to news being part of a confidential service, provided by trusted agents."</ref> The [[List of the oldest newspapers|first newspapers]] emerged in Germany in the early 1600s.<ref>Pettegree, ''The Invention of News'' (2014), p. 8.</ref> [[Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien]], from 1605, is recognized as the world's first formalized 'newspaper';<ref name="Relation">Weber 2006, World Association of Newspapers: [http://www.wan-press.org/article6476.html "Newspapers: 400 Years Young!" p.396] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100310235015/http://www.wan-press.org/article6476.html |date=10 March 2010 }}</ref> while not a 'newspaper' in the modern sense, the Ancient Roman ''[[Acta Diurna]]'' served a similar purpose circa 131 BC.

The new format, which mashed together numerous unrelated and perhaps dubious reports from far-flung locations, created a radically new and jarring experience for its readers.<ref>Pettegree, ''The Invention of News'' (2014), p. 9. "The news reporting of the newspapers was very different, and utterly unfamiliar to those who had not previously been subscribers to the manuscript service. Each report was no more than a couple sentences long. It offered no explanation, comment, or commentary. Unlike a news pamphlet the reader did not know where this fitted in the narrative—or even whether what was reported would turn out to be important."</ref> A variety of styles emerged, from single-story tales, to compilations, overviews, and personal and impersonal types of news analysis.<ref>Smith,''The Newspaper: An International History'' (1979), pp. 9–10.</ref>

News for public consumption was at first tightly controlled by governments. By 1530, England had created a licensing system for the press and banned "seditious opinions".<ref>Cranfield, ''Press and Society'' (1978), p. 1.</ref> Under the [[Licensing Order of 1643|Licensing Act]], publication was restricted to approved presses—as exemplified by The London Gazette, which prominently bore the words: "Published By Authority".<ref>Heyd, ''Reading newspapers'' (2012), p. 11.</ref> Parliament allowed the Licensing Act to lapse in 1695, beginning a new era marked by [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] and [[Tory (British political grouping)|Tory]] newspapers.<ref>Heyd, ''Reading newspapers'' (2012), pp. 15–16.</ref> (During this era, the [[Stamp Act 1712|Stamp Act]] limited newspaper distribution simply by making them expensive to sell and buy.) In France, censorship was even more constant.<ref>Starr, ''Creation of the Media'' (2004), p. 29.</ref> Consequently, many Europeans read newspapers originating from beyond their national borders—especially from the [[Dutch Republic]], where publishers could evade state censorship.<ref>Starr, ''Creation of the Media'' (2004), pp. 43–44.</ref>

The new United States saw a newspaper boom beginning with the Revolutionary era, accelerated by spirited debates over the establishment of a new government, spurred on by subsidies contained in the 1792 [[Postal Service Act]], and continuing into the 1800s.<ref>Bakker, "Trading Facts" (2011), p. 30.</ref><ref>Starr, ''Creation of the Media'' (2004), pp. 69–73.</ref> American newspapers got many of their stories by copying reports from each other. Thus by offering free postage to newspapers wishing to exchange copies, the Postal Service Act subsidized a rapidly growing news network through which different stories could percolate.<ref>Starr, ''Creation of the Media'' (2004), p. 90. "The 1792 law codified the right of newspapers to exchange copies for free with one another, and by the 1840s the average newspaper received an astonishing 4,300 exchange copies a year. Editors relied on other papers for the national news that filled most of their columns. In effect, the federal government was encouraging local papers to become outlets for a national news network that the government itself did not control."</ref> Newspapers thrived during the colonization of the [[American frontier|West]], fueled by high literacy and a newspaper-loving culture.<ref>Cloud, ''Frontier Press'' (2008), pp. 8–9, 22–23.</ref> By 1880, San Francisco rivaled New York in number of different newspapers and in printed newspaper copies per capita.<ref>Cloud, ''Frontier Press'' (2008), pp. 31, 73.</ref> [[Boosterism|Boosters]] of new towns felt that newspapers covering local events brought legitimacy, recognition, and community.<ref>Cloud, ''Frontier Press'' (2008), pp. 67–69.</ref> The 1830s American, wrote [[Alexis de Tocqueville]], was "a very civilized man prepared for a time to face life in the forest, plunging into the wilderness of the New World with his Bible, ax, and newspapers."<ref>Starr, ''Creation of the Media'' (2004), p. 48. [''"Tout est primitif et sauvage autour de lui, mais lui est pour ainsi dire le résultat de dix-huit siècles de travaux et d'expérience. Il porte le vêtement des villes, en parle la langue; sait le passé, est curieux de l'avenir, argumente sur le présent; c'est un homme très civilisé, qui, pour un temps, se soumet à vivre au milieu des bois, et qui s'enfonce dans les déserts du Nouveau Monde avec la Bible, une hache et des journaux."'']</ref> In France, the Revolution brought forth an abundance of newspapers and a new climate of press freedom, followed by a return to repression under Napoleon.<ref>Smith,''The Newspaper: An International History'' (1979), pp. 88–89.</ref> In 1792 the Revolutionaries set up a news ministry called the ''Bureau d'Esprit''.<ref>Straubhaar and LaRose, ''Communications Media in the Information Society'' (1997), p. 391.</ref>

Some newspapers published in the 1800s and after retained the commercial orientation characteristic of the private newsletters of the Renaissance. Economically oriented newspapers published new types of data enabled the advent of [[statistics]], especially [[economic statistics]] which could inform sophisticated investment decisions.<ref>Parsons, ''Power of the Financial Press'' (1989), p. 31</ref> These newspapers, too, became available for larger sections of society, not just elites, keen on investing some of their savings in the [[stock market]]s. Yet, as in the case other newspapers, the incorporation of advertising into the newspaper led to justified reservations about accepting newspaper information at face value.<ref>Parsons, ''Power of the Financial Press'' (1989), p. 40</ref> Economic newspapers also became promoters of economic ideologies, such as [[Keynesianism]] in the mid-1900s.<ref>Parsons, ''Power of the Financial Press'' (1989), pp. 81–110.</ref>

Newspapers came to sub-Saharan Africa via colonization. The first English-language newspaper in the area was ''The Royal Gazette and Sierra Leone Advertiser'', established in 1801, and followed by ''The [[Royal Gold Coast Gazette and Commercial Intelligencer]]'' in 1822 and the ''Liberia Herald'' in 1826.<ref>Fosu, "The Press and Political Participation" (2014), p. 59</ref> A number of nineteenth-century African newspapers were established by missionaries.<ref name=Fosu60>Fosu, "The Press and Political Participation" (2014), pp. 60–61.</ref> These newspapers by and large promoted the colonial governments and served the interests of European settlers by relaying news from Europe.<ref name=Fosu60 /> The first newspaper published in a native African language was the ''Muigwithania'', published in Kikuyu by the Kenyan Central Association.<ref name=Fosu60 /> ''Muigwithania'' and other newspapers published by indigenous Africans took strong opposition stances, agitating strongly for African independence.<ref>Fosu, "The Press and Political Participation" (2014), p. 62</ref> Newspapers were censored heavily during the colonial period—as well as after formal independence. Some liberalization and diversification took place in the 1990s.<ref>Fosu, "The Press and Political Participation" (2014), pp. 64–65.</ref>

Newspapers were slow to [[Arab culture|spread to the Arab world]], which had a stronger tradition of [[Communication#Verbal communication|oral communication]], and mistrust of the European approach to news reporting. By the end of the eighteenth century, the Ottoman Empire's leaders in Istanbul monitored the European press, but its contents were not disseminated for mass consumption.<ref>Ayalon, ''The Press in the Arab Middle East: A History'' (1995), pp. 6–7.</ref> Some of the first written news in modern North Africa arose in Egypt under [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali]], who developed the local paper industry and initiated the limited circulation of news bulletins called {{lang|ar|jurnals}}.<ref>Ayalon, ''The Press in the Arab Middle East: A History'' (1995), pp. 13–16.</ref> Beginning in the 1850s and 1860s, the private press began to develop in the multi-religious country of Lebanon.<ref>Ayalon, ''The Press in the Arab Middle East: A History'' (1995), pp. 28–39.</ref>