Comm455/History of Journalism

During the 16th century, pamphlet readers were exposed to a variety of content. This news often affected the readers themselves, or large groups of people elsewhere. One of the primary topics covered in this “developing news market” was natural disasters and other natural phenomena. The instinctual fear and curiosity about the unknown would drive these […]

For centuries, Latin was the dominant language in what was then known as “Christendom.”  It remained dominant for so long for three main reasons: 1) It was an international language for the elites. The elite and literate across Christendom could understand Latin in both its verbal and written forms.  This gave the language a feeling […]

Flugschriften first appeared in the 16th century. These were published news in the form of short pamphlets. Flugschriften, which means “pamphlets” in German, came about at the time of the reformation. Many of them focused their writing around the propoganda of the Reformation movement, the Thirty Years War, the French Revolution and the Peasant’s War. […]

Siege of Malta wreaks havoc, spreads news. There are some events in history that are simply too big. Their scope, value and relevance are astronomical to the tenth power, and often go unnoticed for subsequent years. As with everything, there are exceptions to this rule: Pearl Harbor, 9/11  and the capture/execution of Osama bin Laden. Everyone […]

“What emerges from the 16th century is a reading public ready to invest in printed material from broadsheets to pamphlets to books that went beyond their trade or devotional lives.”   Over the 16th century, the publishing market was refined: news pamphlets recorded local news in addition to foreign sensationalized news, sensations were the stock […]

Two great fleets met in the Gulf of Lepanto on Oct. 7, 1571 and resulted in a crushing victory for the Holy League. First news of the stunning victory arrived in Venice 12 days later: on Oct. 19.   The Battle: By 1571 Muslims were firmly installed in Europe with their ships ruling the Mediterranean […]

Pamphlet readers had an appetite for news of natural phenomena and the wonders of nature: floods, hailstorms, astrological events (like a solar eclipse). Such natural phenomena, especially those that involved significant loss of life, became staples of the developing news market. Whether it was thousands of years ago or today, news of natural phenomenons and […]

War established a pattern of an eager public and a political strategy of feeding demand: a shrewd awareness of the power of the press. In today’s day and age, the press is often covering news on the front lines of war. But the ability to be on the front lines as a journalist was not possible in World […]