News

==History==
{{See also|History of telecommunication}}

===Folk news===
Evidence suggests that cultures around the world have found a place for people to share stories about interesting new information. Among [[Zulus]], [[Mongols|Mongolians]], Polynesians, and American Southerners, [[anthropologist]]s have documented the practice of questioning travelers for news as a matter of priority.<ref>Stephens, ''History of News'' (1988), pp. 14, 305. "The desire to pass on tales of current events could be found even in [[Cultures]] that did not have writing—let alone printing presses or computers—to whet or satisfy their thirst for news. Observers have often remarked on the fierce concern with the news that they find in preliterate or semiliterate peoples. […] It is difficult, if not impossible, to find a society that does not exchange news and that does not build into its rituals and customs means for facilitating that exchange."</ref> Sufficiently important news would be repeated quickly and often, and could spread by word of mouth over a large geographic area.<ref>Stephens, ''History of News'' (1988), p 23.</ref> Even as printing presses came into use in [[Europe]], news for the general public often travelled orally via monks, travelers, [[town crier]]s, etc.<ref>Fang, ''History of Mass Communication'' (1997), p. 19.</ref>

The news is also transmitted in public gathering places, such as the Greek forum and the Roman baths. Starting in [[England]], [[coffeehouses]] served as important sites for the spread of news, even after telecommunications became widely available. The history of the coffee houses is traced from Arab countries, which was introduced in England in the 16th century.<ref>Stephens, ''History of News'' (1988), p. 8. "A particularly lively forum for the exchange of news by word of mouth—the coffeehouse—flourished in England well after the development of the newspaper, and in some countries, the [[Coffeehouse]] has survived even the introduction of television."</ref> In the Muslim world, people have gathered and exchanged news at mosques and other social places. Travelers on pilgrimages to Mecca traditionally stay at [[caravanserai]]s, roadside inns, along the way, and these places have naturally served as hubs for gaining news of the world.<ref>Ayalon, ''The Press in the Arab Middle East: A History'' (1995), p. 5.</ref> In late medieval Britain, reports ("tidings") of major events were a topic of great public interest, as chronicled in Chaucer's 1380 ''[[The House of Fame]]'' and other works.<ref>Lim, "Take Writing" (2006), pp. 1–6.</ref>

===Government proclamations===
[[File:Fotothek df tg 0007253 Ständebuch ^ Beruf ^ Ausrufer.jpg|thumb|Woodcut by [[Tommaso Garzoni]] depicting a town crier with a trumpet]]

Before the invention of newspapers in the early 17th century, official government bulletins and [[edicts]] were circulated at times in some centralized empires.<ref>[http://mashable.com/follow/topics/news/] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519215200/http://mashable.com/follow/topics/news/|date=19 May 2011}}</ref> The first documented use of an organized [[courier]] service for the diffusion of written documents is in Egypt, where Pharaohs used couriers for the diffusion of their decrees in the territory of the State (2400 BC).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bleumer |first=Gerrit |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KCdvPCBHCjwC&pg=PA2 |title=Electronic Postage Systems: Technology, Security, Economics |year=2007 |isbn=9780387446066 |page=2|publisher=Springer }}</ref> [[Julius Caesar]] regularly publicized his heroic deeds in Gaul, and upon becoming dictator of Rome began publishing government announcements called ''[[Acta Diurna]]''. These were carved in metal or stone and posted in public places.<ref name="Allan, 2004 p. 9">Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), p. 9.</ref><ref>Straubhaar and LaRose, ''Communications Media in the Information Society'' (1997), p. 390.</ref> In medieval England, parliamentary declarations were delivered to [[Reeve (England)|sheriffs]] for public display and reading at the market.<ref>Lim, "Take Writing" (2006), p. 5.</ref>

Specially sanctioned messengers have been recognized in [[Culture of Vietnam|Vietnamese culture]], among the [[Khasi people]] in India, and in the [[Meskwaki|Fox]] and [[Ho-Chunk|Winnebago]] cultures of the American midwest. The [[Zulu Kingdom]] used runners to quickly disseminate news. In West Africa, news can be spread by [[griot]]s. In most cases, the official spreaders of news have been closely aligned with holders of political power.<ref>Stephens, ''History of News'' (1988), p. 27–30.</ref>

[[Town criers]] were a common means of conveying information to citydwellers. In thirteenth-century Florence, criers known as {{lang|it|banditori}} arrived in the market regularly, to announce political news, to convoke public meetings, and to call the populace to arms. In 1307 and 1322–1325, laws were established governing their appointment, conduct, and salary. These laws stipulated how many times a {{lang|it|banditoro}} was to repeat a proclamation (forty) and where in the city they were to read them.<ref>Milner, "Fanno bandire" (2013), pp. 110–112.</ref> Different declarations sometimes came with additional protocols; announcements regarding the plague were also to be read at the city gates.<ref>Milner, "Fanno bandire" (2013), p. 120.</ref> These proclamations all used a standard format, beginning with an ''[[Exordium (rhetoric)|exordium]]''—"The worshipful and most esteemed gentlemen of the Eight of Ward and Security of the city of Florence make it known, notify, and expressly command, to whosoever, of whatever status, rank, quality and condition"—and continuing with a statement (''narratio''), a request made upon the listeners (''petitio''), and the penalty to be exacted from those who would not comply (''peroratio'').<ref>Milner, "Fanno bandire" (2013), p. 121.</ref> In addition to major declarations, ''bandi'' (announcements) might concern petty crimes, requests for information, and notices about missing slaves.<ref>Milner, "Fanno bandire" (2013), pp. 122–123.</ref> [[Niccolò Machiavelli]] was captured by the Medicis in 1513, following a bando calling for his immediate surrender.<ref>Milner, "Fanno bandire" (2013), p. 124.</ref> Some town criers could be paid to include advertising along with news.<ref>Straubhaar and LaRose, ''Communications Media in the Information Society'' (1997), p. 366. "Another ancient form of advertising was the town crier, who told the citizenry about the 'good deal' to be found 'just around the corner'. Unlike the signs, which contained only information regarding the merchant, the criers also informed the citizens of the news of the day. Because the crier, or his agent, was compensated for his assistance in getting the advertising message out in the context of the news, there are interesting parallels with the newspaper of today (Applegate, 1993; Roche, 1993; Schramm, 1988)."</ref>

Under the [[Ottoman Empire]], official messages were regularly distributed at mosques, by traveling holy men, and by secular criers. These criers were sent to read official announcements in marketplaces, highways, and other well-traveled places, sometimes issuing commands and penalties for disobedience.<ref>Ayalon, ''The Press in the Arab Middle East: A History'' (1995), p. 4.</ref>

===Early news networks===
The spread of news has always been linked to the communications networks in place to disseminate it. Thus, political, religious, and commercial interests have historically controlled, expanded, and monitored communications channels by which news could spread. Postal services have long been closely entwined with the maintenance of political power in a large area.<ref name=Fang14>Fang, ''History of Mass Communication'' (1997), pp. 14–15.</ref><ref name=Stephens27>Stephens, ''History of News'' (1988), p. 27. "Whoever controlled the messengers could select which anecdotes and information would be favored by this treatment. Therefore, whoever controlled the messengers gained not only a conduit to the members of a society—the ability to inform them of new regulations—but gained a measure of power over the selection of news the members of a society received—the power, for example to ensure that they received news of triumphs but not necessarily of debacles. Messengers were controlled, for the most part, by kings, chiefs, headmen. They were rarely channels of dissent."</ref>

One of the imperial communication channels, called the "[[Royal Road]]" traversed the [[Assyrian Empire]] and served as a key source of its power.<ref>Kessler, "Royal Roads" (1995), p. 129. "The ability of the Assyrian court to challenge a huge and permanent stream of information seems to have been one of the essential factors for the long maintenance of Assyrian domination, over the vast areas in the Near East."</ref> The Roman Empire maintained a vast network of roads, known as ''[[cursus publicus]]'', for similar purposes.<ref>Pettegree, ''The Invention of News'' (2014), pp. 19–20.</ref>

Visible chains of long-distance signaling, known as [[optical telegraph]]y, have also been used throughout history to convey limited types of information. These can have ranged from smoke and fire signals to advanced systems using semaphore codes and telescopes.<ref>Stephens, ''History of News'' (1988), pp. 24–25.</ref><ref name=Bakker13 /> The latter form of optical telegraph came into use in Japan, Britain, France, and Germany from the 1790s through the 1850s.<ref>Starr, ''Creation of the Media'' (2004), pp. 156–157.</ref><ref name=Distelrath45 />

====Asia====
[[File:KaiYuanZaBaoRemake.jpg|thumb|Reproduction of Kaiyuan Za Bao court newspaper from the Tang dynasty]]
The world's first written news may have originated in [[Spring and Autumn period|eighth century BCE China]], where reports gathered by officials were eventually compiled as the ''[[Spring and Autumn Annals]]''. The annals, whose compilation is attributed to [[Confucius]], were available to a sizeable reading public and dealt with common news themes—though they straddle the line between news and history.<ref>Zhang, ''Origins of the Modern Chinese Press'' (2007), p. 13.</ref> The [[Han dynasty]] is credited with developing one of the most effective imperial surveillance and communications networks in the ancient world.<ref>Smith,''The Newspaper: An International History'' (1979), p. 14. "The Chinese civilization was one of the earliest to have found it convenient to set up a systematic news-collection network across a large land mass. During the Han dynasty (206BC–AD219) the imperial court arranged to be supplied with information on the events of the Empire by means of a postal empire similar to the princely message systems of the European Middle Ages, when the postmasters of the Holy Roman Empire were required to write summaries of events taking place within their regions and transmit them along specified routes."</ref> Government-produced news sheets, called [[tipao]], circulated among court officials during the late Han dynasty (second and third centuries AD). Between 713 and 734, the ''[[Kaiyuan Za Bao]]'' ("Bulletin of the Court") of the Chinese [[Tang dynasty]] published government news; it was handwritten on silk and read by government officials.<ref name=Smith14 /> The court created a Bureau of Official Reports (''Jin Zhouyuan'') to centralize news distribution for the court.<ref>Zhang, ''Origins of the Modern Chinese Press'' (2007), p. 14. "However, it was in the Tang dynasty that a specific bureau—the Bureau of Official Reports (''Jin Zhouyuan'')—was created to accommodate the local representatives. During this time, there were many rising powerful dukes, princes or governor-generals in charge of the large territories, equal in size to a modern province in China. These dukes or princes would naturally provide for their own news service at the capital Chang'an, which handled all official documents submitted by these representatives and transmitted imperial edicts in return. Recent archaeological research has uncovered such official reports from the Tang dynasty. Two archive documents of that period, originally found in Dunhuang have been regarded by Chinese scholars as the earliest forms of newspaper in the world (Fang 1997 53–8)"</ref> Newsletters called ''ch'ao pao'' continued to be produced and gained wider public circulation in the following centuries.<ref name=Smith14a>Smith,''The Newspaper: An International History'' (1979), p. 14. "At a later stage of its development, during the Sung period (960–1278), the ''ti pao'' was made to circulate among the purely intellectual groups, and during the Ming (1367–1644) was seen by a wider circle of society."</ref> In 1582 there was the first reference to privately published newssheets in Beijing, during the late [[Ming dynasty]].<ref name="brook xxi">[[Timothy Brook (historian)|Brook, Timothy]]. (1998). ''[[The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China]]''. Berkeley: [[University of California Press]]. {{ISBN|0-520-22154-0}} p. xxi.</ref><ref>Stephens, ''History of News'' (1988), pp. 68–69.</ref>

Japan had effective communications and postal delivery networks at several points in its history, first in 646 with the [[Taika Reform]] and again during the [[Kamakura period]] from 1183 to 1333. The system depended on ''[[hikyaku]]'', runners, and regularly spaced relay stations. By this method, news could travel between Kyoto and Kamakura in 5–7 days. Special horse-mounted messengers could move information at the speed of 170 kilometers per day.<ref name=Distelrath45>Distelrath, "Development of the Information and Communication Systems in Germany and Japan" (2000), pp. 45–46 .</ref><ref>Alice Gordenker, "Postal Symbol"; ''Japan Times'', 21 May 2013.</ref> The Japanese shogunates were less tolerant than the Chinese government of news circulation.<ref name=Smith14>Smith,''The Newspaper: An International History'' (1979), p. 14–15.</ref> The postal system established during the [[Edo period]] was even more effective, with average speeds of 125–150&nbsp;km/day and express speed of 200&nbsp;km/day. This system was initially used only by the government, taking private communications only at exorbitant prices. Private services emerged and in 1668 established their own ''[[Kabunakama|nakama]]'' (guild). They became even faster, and created an effective optical telegraphy system using flags by day and lanterns and mirrors by night.<ref name=Distelrath45 />

====Europe====
In Europe, during the Middle Ages, elites relied on runners to transmit news over long distances. At 33 kilometres per day, a runner would take two months to bring a message across the [[Hanseatic League]] from Bruges to Riga.<ref>Distelrath, "Development of the Information and Communication Systems in Germany and Japan" (2000), p. 44.</ref><ref>Lampe & Ploeckl, "Spanning the Globe" (2014), 247.</ref> In the [[Early modern Europe|early modern period]], increased cross-border interaction created a rising need for information which was met by concise handwritten newssheets. The driving force of this new development was the commercial advantage provided by up-to-date news.<ref name=Pettegree3 /><ref>McCusker & Gravesteijn, ''Beginnings of Commercial and Financial Journalism'' (1991), p. 21. "Business thrives on the most recent news. The merchants of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, no less than those of today, required the 'freshest advices' in order to conduct their affairs profitably."</ref>

In 1556, the government of [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] first published the monthly ''Notizie scritte'', which cost one [[gazette|gazetta]].<ref name="WAN timeline">[http://www.wan-press.org/article2822.html Wan-Press.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111093302/http://www.wan-press.org/article2822.html |date=11 January 2012 }}, A Newspaper Timeline, [[World Association of Newspapers]]</ref> These [[avviso|avvisi]] were handwritten newsletters and used to convey political, military, and economic news quickly and efficiently to Italian cities (1500–1700)—sharing some characteristics of newspapers though usually not considered true newspapers.<ref>Infelise, Mario. "Roman Avvisi: Information and Politics in the Seventeenth Century." in ''Court and Politics in Papal Rome, 1492–1700''(Cambridge University Press, 2002) pp. 212, 214, 216–217</ref> ''Avvisi'' were sold by subscription under the auspices of military, religious, and banking authorities. Sponsorship flavored the contents of each series, which were circulated under many different names. Subscribers included clerics, diplomatic staff, and noble families. By the last quarter of the seventeenth century, long passages from ''avvisi'' were finding their way into published monthlies such as the {{Lang|fr|[[Mercure de France]]}} and, in northern Italy, ''Pallade veneta''.<ref>Selfridge-Field, Eleanor. ''Pallade Veneta: Writings on Music and Society, 1650–1750''. Venice: Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi, 1985. Chs. 1 2, 3.</ref><ref>Selfridge-Field, Eleanor. ''Song and Season: Science, Culture, and Theatrical Time''. (Stanford UP, 2007). Chs. 10, 11.</ref><ref>Pettegree, ''The Invention of News'' (2014), p. 5.</ref>

[[File:Postkurse 1563.jpg|thumb|Some European postal routes in 1563]]
Postal services enabled merchants and monarchs to stay abreast of important information. For the [[Holy Roman Empire]], Emperor [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximillian I]] in 1490 authorized two brothers from the Italian Tasso family, Francesco and Janetto, to create a network of courier stations linked by riders. They began with a communications line between Innsbruck and Mechelen and grew from there.<ref name=LampePloeckl248>Lampe & Ploeckl, "Spanning the Globe" (2014), 248.</ref> In 1505 this network expanded to Spain, new governed by Maximilian's son [[Philip I of Castile|Philip]]. These riders could travel 180 kilometers in a day.<ref>Pettegree, ''The Invention of News'' (2014), pp. 17–18.</ref> This system became the [[Reichspost|Imperial Reichspost]], administered by Tasso descendants (subsequently known as [[Lamoral II Claudius Franz, Count of Thurn and Taxis|Thurn-und-Taxis]]), who in 1587 received exclusive operating rights from the Emperor.<ref name=LampePloeckl248 /> The [[La Poste (France)|French postal service]] and [[General Post Office|English postal service]] also began at this time, but did not become comprehensive until the early 1600s.<ref name=LampePloeckl248 /><ref>Starr, ''Creation of the Media'' (2004), pp. 30–31.</ref><ref>Fang, ''History of Mass Communication'' (1997), pp. 29–30.</ref> In 1620, the English system linked with Thurn-und-Taxis.<ref name=Bakker13>Bakker, "Trading Facts" (2011), p. 13.</ref>

These connections underpinned an extensive system of news circulation, with handwritten items bearing dates and places of origin. Centred in Germany, the network took in news from Russia, the Balkans, Italy, Britain, France, and the Netherlands.<ref>Smith,''The Newspaper: An International History'' (1979), pp. 18–19. "Since the late Middle Ages a formal network of correspondents and intelligence agents had come into being across the bulk of the European continent, busily sending news of military, diplomatic and ecclesiastical affairs along a series of prescribed routes. The information was handwritten and passed along carefully organized chains, each item being labeled with its place and date of origin."</ref> The German lawyer [[Christoph von Scheurl]] and the [[Fugger]] house of Augsburg were prominent hubs in this network.<ref name=Bakker11 /> Letters describing historically significant events could gain wide circulation as news reports. Indeed, personal correspondence sometimes acted only as a convenient channel through which news could flow across a larger network.<ref>Lim, "Take Writing" (2006), pp. 35–45.</ref> A common type of business communication was a simple listing of current prices, the circulation of which quickened the flow of international trade.<ref name=Bakker10>Bakker, "Trading Facts" (2011), pp. 10–11.</ref><ref>Kallionen, "Information, communication technology, and business" (2004), p. 22.</ref> Businesspeople also wanted to know about events related to shipping, the affairs of other businesses, and political developments.<ref name=Bakker10 /> Even after the advent of international newspapers, business owners still valued correspondence highly as a source of reliable news that would affect their enterprise.<ref>Kallionen, "Information, communication technology, and business" (2004), p. 21. "Although the businessmen obtained information from newspapers and other public sources, for instance, from the consuls stationed in foreign towns, they placed special value on the letters received directly from their foreign partners. This is precisely the key to the existence of a network relationship: the parties were dependent on the resources controlled by both parties, both goods and information, so by mutual co-operation both parties gained mutual benefits. Long-term, personal networks were particularly well suited for transmitting information that required high reliability.</ref> Handwritten newsletters, which could be produced quickly for a limited clientele, also continued into the 1600s.<ref name=Bakker11>Bakker, "Trading Facts" (2011), pp. 11–12.</ref>

===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>

===Newswire===
The development of the [[electrical telegraph]], which often travelled along railroad lines, enabled news to travel faster, over longer distances.<ref>Wenzlhuemer, ''Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World'' (2013), pp. 31–32.</ref> (Days before Morse's Baltimore–Washington line transmitted the famous question, "What hath God wrought?", it transmitted the news that Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen had been chosen by the Whig nominating party.)<ref name="Allan, 2004 p. 9" /> Telegraph networks enabled a new centralization of the news, in the hands of [[wire services]] concentrated in major cities. The modern form of these originated with [[Charles-Louis Havas]], who founded Bureau Havas (later [[Agence France-Presse]]) in Paris. Havas began in 1832, using the French government's optical telegraph network. In 1840 he began using pigeons for communications to Paris, London, and Brussels. Havas began to use the electric telegraph when it became available.<ref>Bakker, "Trading Facts" (2011), p. 15.</ref>

One of Havas's proteges, [[Bernhard Wolff]], founded [[Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau]] in Berlin in 1849.<ref>Starr, ''Creation of the Media'' (2004), p. 180.</ref> Another Havas disciple, [[Paul Reuter]], began collecting news from Germany and France in 1849, and in 1851 immigrated to London, where he established the [[Reuters]] news agency—specializing in news from the continent.<ref>Salmon, ''The Newspaper and the Historian'' (1923), p. 118.</ref> In 1863, William Saunders and Edward Spender formed the [[Central News Agency (London)|Central Press]] agency, later called the [[Press Association]], to handle domestic news.<ref>Salmon, ''The Newspaper and the Historian'' (1923), pp. 117–118.</ref> Just before insulated telegraph line crossed the English Channel in 1851, Reuter won the right to transmit stock exchange prices between Paris and London.<ref name=Wenzlhuemer90>Wenzlhuemer, ''Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World'' (2013), pp. 90–92.</ref> He maneuvered Reuters into a dominant global position with the motto "Follow the Cable", setting up news outposts across the [[British Empire]] in Alexandria (1865), Bombay (1866), Melbourne (1874), Sydney (1874), and Cape Town (1876).<ref name=Wenzlhuemer90 /><ref>Hachten, ''World News Prism'' (1996), p. 43.</ref> In the United States, the [[Associated Press]] became a news powerhouse, gaining a lead position through an exclusive arrangement with the [[Western Union]] company.<ref name=Starr177 />

The telegraph ushered in a new global communications regime, accompanied by a restructuring of the national postal systems, and closely followed by the advent of telephone lines. With the value of international news at a premium, governments, businesses, and news agencies moved aggressively to reduce transmission times. In 1865, Reuters had the scoop on the [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln assassination]], reporting the news in England twelve days after the event took place.<ref>Bakker, "Trading Facts" (2011), p. 16.</ref> In 1866, [[Transatlantic telegraph cable|an undersea telegraph cable]] successfully connected Ireland to Newfoundland (and thus the Western Union network) cutting trans-Atlantic transmission time from days to hours.<ref name="Allan, 2004 p. 17">Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), p. 17.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Headrick | first1 = Daniel R. | last2 = Griset | first2 = Pascal | title = Submarine Telegraph Cables: Business and Politics, 1838–1939 | journal = Business History Review | volume = 75 | issue = 3 }}</ref><ref>Graham Meikle, ''Interpreting News''; Palgrave Macmillan, 2009; p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=axwdBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA152 152].</ref> The transatlantic cable allowed fast exchange of information about the London and New York stock exchanges, as well as the New York, Chicago, and Liverpool commodity exchanges—for the price of $5–10, in gold, per word.<ref>Hills, ''Struggle for Control of Global Communication'' (2002), p. 32.</ref> Transmitting On 11 May 1857, a young British telegraph operator in Delhi signaled home to alert the authorities of the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]]. The rebels proceeded to disrupt the British telegraph network, which was rebuilt with more redundancies.<ref>Wenzlhuemer, ''Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World'' (2013), pp. 211–215.</ref> In 1902–1903, Britain and the U.S. completed the circumtelegraphy of the planet with transpacific cables from Canada to Fiji and New Zealand (British Empire), and from the US to Hawaii and the occupied Philippines.<ref>Hills, ''Struggle for Control of Global Communication'' (2002), pp. 145–146.</ref> U.S. reassertions of the [[Monroe Doctrine]] notwithstanding, Latin America was a battleground of competing telegraphic interests until World War I, after which U.S. interests finally did consolidate their power in the hemisphere.<ref>Hills, ''Struggle for Control of Global Communication'' (2002), pp. 153–178.</ref>

[[File:Eisenbahnen- und Telegraphendichte der Erde um 1900.jpg|thumb|World railway and telegraph system, 1900]]
By the turn of the century (i.e., {{Circa|1900}}), Wolff, Havas, and Reuters formed a news cartel, dividing up the global market into three sections, in which each had more-or-less exclusive distribution rights and relationships with national agencies.<ref>Oliver Boyd-Barrett, {{"'}}Global' News Agencies", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), pp. 26–27. "The principal feature of the world's news market in the second half of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th, was the cartel. This was an oligopolistic and hierarchical structure of the global news market controlled by Reuters, Havas and Wolff at the top tier, in partnership with an ever-increasing number of national news agencies. Each member of the triumvirate had the right to distribute its news service, incorporating news of the cartel, to its ascribed territories: these territories were determined by periodic, formal agreements. […] The triumvirate of Reuters, Havas, and Wolff supplied world news to national news agencies in return for a service of national news […] (although the practice was rather more complicated) the national agencies had exclusive rights to the distribution of cartel news in their territories, and the cartel had exclusive rights to the national agency news services."</ref> Each agency's area corresponded roughly to the colonial sphere of its mother country.<ref>Bakker, "Trading Facts" (2011), p. 22.</ref> Reuters and the Australian national news service had an agreement to exchange news only with each other.<ref>Bakker, "Trading Facts" (2011), p. 36.</ref> Due to the high cost of maintaining infrastructure, political goodwill, and global reach, newcomers found it virtually impossible to challenge the big three European agencies or the American Associated Press.<ref>Bakker, "Trading Facts" (2011), p. 23.</ref> In 1890 Reuters (in partnership with the Press Association, England's major news agency for domestic stories) expanded into "soft" news stories for public consumption, about topics such as sports and "human interest".<ref>Bakker, "Trading Facts" (2011), p. 28.</ref> In 1904, the big three wire services opened relations with ''Vestnik'', the news agency of Czarist Russia, to their group, though they maintained their own reporters in Moscow.<ref>Michael Palmer, "What Makes News", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), pp. 180–181.</ref> During and after the [[Russian Revolution]], the outside agencies maintained a working relationship with the Petrograd Telegraph Agency, renamed the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) and eventually the [[TASS|Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS)]].<ref name=Palmer184>Michael Palmer, "What Makes News", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), p. 184.</ref>

The [[Chinese Communist Party]] created its news agency, the Red China News Agency, in 1931; its primary responsibilities were the ''Red China'' newspaper and the internal ''Reference News''. In 1937, the Party renamed the agency ''[[Xinhua]]'', New China. Xinhua became the official news agency of the [[People's Republic of China]] in 1949.<ref name=XinXin>Xin Xin, "A developing market in news: Xinhua News Agency and Chinese newspapers"; ''Media, Culture & Society'' 28.1 (2006).</ref>

These agencies touted their ability to distill events into "minute globules of news", 20–30 word summaries which conveyed the essence of new developments.<ref name=Palmer184 /> Unlike newspapers, and contrary to the sentiments of some of their reporters, the agencies sought to keep their reports simple and factual.<ref>Michael Palmer, "What Makes News", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), pp. 182–183.</ref> The wire services brought forth the "inverted pyramid" model of news copy, in which key facts appear at the start of the text, and more and more details are included as it goes along.<ref name="Allan, 2004 p. 17"/> The sparse telegraphic writing style spilled over into newspapers, which often reprinted stories from the wire with little embellishment.<ref name=MacGregor /><ref>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), pp. 18–19.</ref> In a 20 September 1918 ''Pravda'' editorial, Lenin instructed the Soviet press to cut back on their political rambling and produce many short anticapitalist news items in "telegraph style".<ref>Wolfe, ''Governing Soviet Journalism'' (2005), pp. 25–26. Translating Lenin: "Why instead of 200–400 lines you can't write in 20–10 lines about such simple, well-known, clear, and already mastered to a great degree, widespread phenomena like the base betrayals of the Mensheviks, those lackeys of the bourgeoisie, like the Anglo-Japanese invasion for the restoration of the holy law of capital; like the chattering teeth of the American millionaires against Germany, and so on, and so on. It is necessary to talk about this, it is necessary to register each new fact in this regard, but in a few lines; to pound out in 'telegraph style' the new appearances of old, already known and evaluated policies."</ref>

As in previous eras, the news agencies provided special services to political and business clients, and these services constituted a significant portion of their operations and income. The wire services maintained close relationships with their respective national governments, which provided both press releases and payments.<ref name=OBB23>Boyd-Barrett, {{"'}}Global' News Agencies", in Boyd-Barrett & Rantanen, ''The Globalization of News'' (1998), pp. 23–24. "Earnings were generally derived from the sale of news services to media, financial or economic institutions, and governments, which were important as sources of revenue and as sources of intelligence, and it is generally considered that their news services reflected their respective national interests."</ref> The acceleration and centralization of economic news facilitated regional economic integration and [[economic globalization]]. "It was the decrease in information costs and the increasing communication speed that stood at the roots of increased market integration, rather than falling transport costs by itself. In order to send goods to another area, merchants needed to know first whether in fact to send off the goods and to what place. Information costs and speed were essential for these decisions."<ref>Bakker, "Trading Facts" (2011), p. 33.</ref>

===Radio and television===
The [[British Broadcasting Company]] began transmitting radio news from London in 1922, dependent entirely, by law, on the British news agencies.<ref name=Allen26>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), pp. 26–27.</ref> BBC radio marketed itself as a news by and for social elites, and hired only broadcasters who spoke with upper-class accents.<ref>Wood, ''History of International Broadcasting'' (1992), p. 31. "It was quite normal for the average listener to be depicted as dressed immaculately in full evening dress, seated or standing elegantly with an expensive brand of cigarette in his hand, listening to his set. The BBC was happy to live up to this stereotype. Radio announces always arrived in evening dress, and announcers were chosen from the upper classes of English society. More importantly, they had to be able to speak the King's English just as the King spoke it."</ref> The BBC gained importance in the May 1926 general strike, during which newspapers were closed and the radio served as the only source of news for an uncertain public. (To the displeasure of many listeners, the BBC took an unambiguously pro-government stance against the strikers).<ref name=Allen26 /><ref>Wood, ''History of International Broadcasting'' (1992), pp. 33–34.</ref>

In the US, RCA's Radio Group established its radio network, NBC, in 1926. The Paley family founded CBS soon after. These two networks, which supplied news broadcasts to subsidiaries and affiliates, dominated the airwaves throughout the period of radio's hegemony as a news source.<ref>Straubhaar and LaRose, ''Communications Media in the Information Society'' (1997), pp. 177–178.</ref> Radio broadcasters in the United States negotiated a similar arrangement with the press in 1933, when they agreed to use only news from the Press–Radio Bureau and eschew advertising; this agreement soon collapsed and radio stations began reporting their own news (with advertising).<ref>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), p. 33.</ref> As in Britain, American news radio avoided "controversial" topics as per norms established by the [[National Association of Broadcasters]].<ref name=Allen34>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), p. 34.</ref> By 1939, 58% of Americans surveyed by ''Fortune'' considered radio news more accurate than newspapers, and 70% chose radio as their main news source.<ref name=Allen34 /> Radio expanded rapidly across the continent, from 30 stations in 1920 to a thousand in the 1930s. This operation was financed mostly with advertising and public relations money.<ref>Wood, ''History of International Broadcasting'' (1992), p. 27. "Thus WEAF planted the seeds of a new business that eventually grew to envelop the broadcasting industry: advertising, public relations, and propaganda. From about 1927 this revolution was under way. Advertising agencies, manufacturers, sponsors, promoters, and the sellers of medical and life insurance were jockeying for places in a world of propaganda disseminated by radio broadcasting."</ref>

The Soviet Union began a major international broadcasting operation in 1929, with stations in German, English and French. The [[Nazi Party]] made use of the radio in its rise to power in Germany, with much of its propaganda focused on attacking the Soviet Bolsheviks. The British and Italian foreign radio services competed for influence in North Africa. All four of these broadcast services grew increasingly vitriolic as the European nations prepared for war.<ref>Wood, ''History of International Broadcasting'' (1992), pp. 38–42.</ref>

The war provided an opportunity to expand radio and take advantage of its new potential. The BBC reported on [[Normandy landings|Allied invasion of Normandy]] on 8:00&nbsp;a.m. of the morning it took place, and including a clip from German radio coverage of the same event. Listeners followed along with developments throughout the day.<ref>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), p. 29.</ref> The U.S. set up its [[United States Office of War Information|Office of War Information]] which by 1942 sent programming across South America, the Middle East, and East Asia.<ref>Wood, ''History of International Broadcasting'' (1992), p. 51.</ref> [[Radio Luxembourg (English)|Radio Luxembourg]], a centrally located high-power station on the continent, was [[Germany Calling|seized by Germany]], and then [[Radio 1212|by the United States]]—which created [[fake news]] programs appearing as though they were created by Germany.<ref>Wood, ''History of International Broadcasting'' (1992), pp. 45.</ref> Targeting American troops in the Pacific, the Japanese government broadcast the "[[The Zero Hour (World War II)|Zero Hour]]" program, which included news from the U.S. to make the soldiers homesick.<ref>Wood, ''History of International Broadcasting'' (1992), pp. 87–91.</ref> But by the end of the war, Britain had the largest radio network in the world, broadcasting internationally in 43 different languages.<ref>Wood, ''History of International Broadcasting'' (1992), pp. 39, 105.</ref> Its scope would eventually be surpassed (by 1955) by the worldwide [[Voice of America]] programs, produced by the [[United States Information Agency]].<ref>Wood, ''History of International Broadcasting'' (1992), pp. 108–114, 132.</ref>

In Britain and the United States, television news watching rose dramatically in the 1950s and by the 1960s supplanted radio as the public's primary source of news.<ref>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), p. 42–44.</ref> In the U.S., television was run by the same networks which owned radio: CBS, NBC, and an NBC spin-off called ABC.<ref>Straubhaar and LaRose, ''Communications Media in the Information Society'' (1997), p. 209.</ref> [[Edward R. Murrow]], who first entered the public ear as a war reporter in London, made the big leap to television to become an iconic newsman on CBS (and later the director of the United States Information Agency).<ref>Straubhaar and LaRose, ''Communications Media in the Information Society'' (1997), pp. 179, 210.</ref>

[[Ted Turner]]'s creation of the [[Cable News Network]] (CNN) in 1980 inaugurated a new era of [[24-hour news cycle|24-hour]] satellite news broadcasting. In 1991, the BBC introduced a competitor, [[BBC World Service Television]]. Rupert Murdoch's Australian [[News Corporation (1980–2013)|News Corporation]] entered the picture with [[Fox News Channel]] in the US, [[Sky News]] in Britain, and [[Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific|STAR TV]] in Asia.<ref name=McNair108 /> Combining this new apparatus with the use of [[Embedded journalism|embedded reporters]], the United States waged the 1991–1992 [[Gulf War]] with the assistance of nonstop [[Media coverage of the Gulf War|media coverage]].<ref>Hachten, ''World News Prism'' (1996), p. 34.</ref> CNN's specialty is the [[crisis]], to which the network is prepared to shift its total attention if so chosen.<ref name=HachtenCNN>Hachten, ''World News Prism'' (1996), pp. 45–48. "When a major crisis breaks out overseas, ABC, CBS, and NBC will issue news bulletins and then go back to scheduled programming and perhaps do a late-evening wrap-up, but CNN stays on the air for long stretches of time continually updating the story. The networks' version of the story will be seen in the United States; CNN's version will be seen all over the world."</ref> CNN news was transmitted via [[INTELSAT]] communications satellites.<ref>Hachten, ''World News Prism'' (1996), pp. 54–55.</ref> CNN, said an executive, would bring a "town crier to the global village".<ref name=Tomlinson />

In 1996, the Qatar-owned broadcaster [[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]] emerged as a powerful alternative to the Western media, capitalizing in part on anger in the Arab & Muslim world regarding biased coverage of the Gulf War. Al Jazeera hired many news workers conveniently laid off by [[BBC Arabic Television]], which closed in April 1996. It used [[Arabsat]] to broadcast.<ref name=McNair108>McNair, ''Cultural Chaos'' (2006), pp. 108–114.</ref>

===Internet===
The early internet, known as [[ARPANET]], was controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense and used mostly by academics. It became available to a wider public with the release of the [[Netscape (browser)|Netscape browser]] in 1994.<ref>McNair, ''Cultural Chaos'' (2006), p. 118.</ref> At first, news websites were mostly archives of print publications.<ref>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), p. 173.</ref> An early [[online newspaper]] was the ''Electronic Telegraph'', published by ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''.<ref name=Thompson /><ref>Shane Richmond, "[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6545788/Telegraph.co.uk-15-years-of-online-news.html Telegraph.co.uk: 15 years of online news]"; ''The Telegraph'', 11 November 2009.</ref> [[1994 Northridge earthquake|A 1994 earthquake in California]] was one of the first big stories to be reported online in real time.<ref name=Allan175>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), pp. 175–176.</ref> The new availability of web browsing made news sites accessible to more people.<ref name=Allan175 /> On the day of the [[Oklahoma City bombing]] in April 1995, people flocked to newsgroups and chatrooms to discuss the situation and share information. The ''Oklahoma City Daily'' posted news to its site within hours. Two of the only news sites capable of hosting images, the ''San Jose Mercury News'' and ''Time'' magazine, posted photographs of the scene.<ref name=Allan175 />

Quantitatively, the internet has massively expanded the sheer volume of news items available to one person. The speed of news flow to individuals has also reached a new plateau.<ref>McNair, ''Cultural Chaos'' (2006), pp. 1–2.</ref> This insurmountable flow of news can daunt people and cause [[information overload]]. [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] called this period the "technetronic era", in which "global reality increasingly absorbs the individual, involves him, and even occasionally overwhelms him."<ref>Hachten, ''World News Prism'' (1996), p. 8.</ref>

In cases of government crackdowns or revolutions, the Internet has often become a major communication channel for news propagation; while it's a (relatively) simple act to shut down a newspaper, radio or television station, mobile devices such as smartphones and netbooks are much harder to detect and confiscate. The propagation of internet-capable mobile devices has also given rise to the [[citizen journalist]], who provide an additional perspective on unfolding events.