Oh, this. You want me to take something as mundane as Wikipedia and… make it mine. Fine. But don't expect sunshine and rainbows. This is how I see it.
News
News. It’s just… information. About what’s happening. Now. It travels through the ether, whispered from one person to another, etched onto paper, bleeding through the wires. It’s the frantic pulse of the world, whether you want to feel it or not. They call it "hard news" when it’s supposed to be important, as if anything truly matters in the grand scheme.
The subjects? A relentless parade: war, the machinations of government, the hollow echo of politics, the hollow promises of education, the fragile facade of health, the gnawing anxiety of the economy and business. Even fashion, sport, and entertainment are just distractions from the inevitable decay. And the environment? A slow-motion disaster we refuse to acknowledge. Governments issue proclamations, royal ceremonies, laws, taxes, public health pronouncements, the endless cycle of criminals. It’s all just noise. Technological leaps and social changes only make the noise louder, faster.
For millennia, it was just words, spoken and carried. Then came the printing press, and suddenly, information had a more permanent, albeit still chaotic, form. Newspapers. The 20th century brought radio and television, blaring into our lives. Now, the internet is the latest conduit, a firehose of unfiltered data.
Meaning
Etymology
"News." It’s just the plural of "new," a 14th-century quirk of the English language. Like the French nouvelles. Or the Slavic languages with their novost or noviny. Even Welsh and Cornish have their versions. It all boils down to the same thing: new.
And "current events"? Apparently, some Jessica Garretson Finch, a teacher at Barnard College in the 1890s, coined that phrase. As if anything is ever truly current.
Newness
The very essence of news is its newness. It’s inherently unstable, unlike the carefully curated narratives of history or academia. Historians try to find patterns, to connect the dots. News just throws events at you, isolated and disconnected. It’s always about the present, or the immediate past, even if the roots of the story stretch back centuries. There needs to be a "peg," a hook to drag it into the now. And it thrives on the unusual, the deviant, the off. "Man Bites Dog," they say. Because "Dog Bites Man" is just… Tuesday.
The faster the medium, the more it sheds the slow, deliberate analysis. It becomes disposable.
Commodity
Some theories suggest that news is simply whatever the news industry decides to sell. Journalism, in this light, is just the dirty business of collecting and packaging it. A raw material, like paper or server space, to be processed and shipped out. News agencies are the wholesalers, the publishers the retailers. It’s all a transaction.
Tone
They claim to value impartiality, neutrality, objectivity. A laughable aspiration, given the inherent political bias in everything. Michael Schudson argues that before World War I, journalists didn’t even grasp the concept of bias. They just reported. Now, with the rise of tabloid journalism, even the pretense is wearing thin. And then there’s the paradox: the constant cry for objectivity, juxtaposed with the insatiable appetite for sensationalism. Emotive stories, exaggerated for consumption. It’s not far removed from gossip, is it? "If it bleeds, it leads," they mutter. Charming.
Newsworthiness
"Newsworthiness." It’s a subject’s perceived relevance, their ability to snag attention. Apparently, there are common values across cultures: impact, conflict, proximity, familiarity, and deviation from the norm. War makes the cut because, well, it’s dangerous and unknown.
History
Folk News
Long before the press, people craved information. Travelers were interrogated, stories passed by word of mouth. In China, Mongolia, Polynesia, even the American South, the same impulse. News, even when slow, would ripple across vast distances. Even with printing presses, the spoken word held sway. Coffeehouses became hubs, places to gather and exchange. In the Muslim world, mosques and caravanserais served the same purpose. Chaucer even wrote about "tidings" in the 1380s.
Government Proclamations
Before papers, there were official bulletins, edicts. Egypt had organized courier services in 2400 BC. Julius Caesar carved his deeds onto Acta Diurna for public display. Medieval England had parliamentary declarations read by sheriffs. Vietnamese culture, the Khasi people, the Fox and Winnebago tribes, the Zulu Kingdom, West Africa with its griots – all had official news carriers, tied to power.
Town criers were the loudspeakers of their day. In 13th-century Florence, banditori announced political news, convened meetings, called to arms. Laws governed their conduct, their salary, even how many times they had to repeat a proclamation (forty, apparently). They’d announce petty crimes, missing slaves, even advertise. Niccolò Machiavelli was caught because of a bando.
The Ottoman Empire used mosques, holy men, and secular criers for official messages, read in marketplaces and highways, often with threats of punishment for disobedience.
Early News Networks
News followed the communication lines. Postal services were crucial for political power. The Assyrian Empire had its "Royal Road". The Romans, their cursus publicus. Then came optical telegraphy – smoke signals, fire, semaphore. From the 1790s to the 1850s, Japan, Britain, France, and Germany used these systems.
Asia
Eighth century BCE China might have seen the first written news, compiled in the Spring and Autumn Annals. The Han dynasty built an impressive surveillance network. Their tipao circulated among officials. The Tang dynasty had the Kaiyuan Za Bao ("Bulletin of the Court"), handwritten on silk. A Bureau of Official Reports centralized it. Newsletters called ch'ao pao spread wider later. The first privately published sheets appeared in Beijing in 1582.
Japan had efficient postal systems by 646 AD, revived during the Kamakura period. Hikyaku, runners and relay stations. News between Kyoto and Kamakura in 5-7 days. The shogunates were less lenient than China. The Edo period system was faster, with average speeds of 125-150 km/day. They even developed optical telegraphy with flags, lanterns, and mirrors.
Europe
In the Middle Ages, elites used runners. Bruges to Riga took two months. The early modern period saw a surge in handwritten newssheets for commercial advantage.
Venice published its Notizie scritte monthly in 1556, costing one gazetta. These handwritten avvisi spread political, military, and economic news across Italian cities until 1700. They were subscription-based, sponsored by authorities, and their content reflected the sponsor. By the late 17th century, passages from them appeared in published monthlies.
Postal services were vital for merchants and monarchs. Emperor Maximilian I authorized the Tasso family in 1490 to build a courier network across the Holy Roman Empire. It expanded to Spain in 1505. This became the Imperial Reichspost, run by Tasso descendants. La Poste and the General Post Office in Britain emerged around the same time.
This formed an extensive news circulation system, with handwritten items dated and sourced. Centered in Germany, it pulled news from Russia, the Balkans, Italy, Britain, France, and the Netherlands. Figures like Christoph von Scheurl and the Fugger family were key nodes. Personal letters often acted as conduits for wider news. Simple price lists circulated, speeding up trade. Business owners needed news on shipping, competitors, politics. Even with international newspapers, correspondence remained crucial.
Rise of the Newspaper
The spread of paper and the printing press changed everything. News shifted from dry economic data to something more… emotive. Private newsletters persisted for those who needed real intelligence. The first newspapers appeared in Germany in the early 1600s. The Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, from 1605, is considered the first formal newspaper, though the Roman Acta Diurna predate it.
These new formats mashed together disparate, often dubious, reports. A jarring experience. Styles varied: single stories, compilations, overviews, personal and impersonal analysis.
Governments initially clamped down. England licensed the press by 1530, banning "seditious opinions." The Licensing Act restricted publication to approved presses, like The London Gazette, which proudly declared "Published By Authority." Parliament let it lapse in 1695, ushering in the era of Whig and Tory papers. The Stamp Act made them expensive. France was even more restrictive. So, Europeans read papers from the Dutch Republic, where censorship was looser.
The new United States saw a newspaper boom during the Revolution, fueled by debates and the 1792 Postal Service Act. American papers copied each other's stories, a subsidized news network. They thrived in the American frontier, with high literacy and a love for news. San Francisco rivaled New York by 1880. Local papers gave legitimacy to new towns. Alexis de Tocqueville noted the American emigrant carried his Bible, ax, and newspapers. The French Revolution brought a burst of press freedom, then Napoleonic repression. A news ministry, the Bureau d'Esprit, was even set up.
Some 19th-century papers retained the commercial focus, providing economic statistics for investors. They became accessible to more people. But advertising blurred the lines of trust. These papers also promoted economic ideologies, like Keynesianism.
Newspapers reached sub-Saharan Africa through colonization. The Royal Gazette and Sierra Leone Advertiser appeared in 1801. Missionaries established many 19th-century papers, supporting colonial governments. The first in a native African language was Muigwithania, in Kikuyu, which agitated for independence. Censorship was rampant, both colonial and post-colonial. The 1990s saw some liberalization.
The Arab world was slower to adopt newspapers, more attached to oral communication and distrustful of European news. The Ottoman Empire monitored European press, but it wasn't for mass consumption. Egypt's Muhammad Ali initiated jurnals. Lebanon saw a private press emerge in the 1850s-60s.
Newswire
The electrical telegraph sped things up. News travelled along railroad lines. Morse’s famous "What hath God wrought?" was preceded by news of political appointments. Telegraph networks centralized news in major cities, controlled by wire services.
Charles-Louis Havas started Bureau Havas (later Agence France-Presse) in Paris in 1832, using optical telegraphs, then pigeons, then the electric telegraph.
His proteges founded others: Bernhard Wolff established Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau in Berlin in 1849. Paul Reuter started in Germany and France, then moved to London in 1851 to found Reuters. In 1863, Central Press was formed, later the Press Association, for domestic news. Reuter dominated globally with "Follow the Cable," setting up outposts across the British Empire. In the US, the Associated Press partnered with Western Union.
The telegraph created a global regime, with national postal systems restructuring and telephone lines appearing. Governments, businesses, and agencies raced to cut transmission times. Reuters scooped the Lincoln assassination news in England twelve days later. In 1866, an undersea telegraph cable connected Ireland and Newfoundland, cutting transatlantic time to hours. It facilitated rapid exchange of stock and commodity prices. A Delhi operator signaled the Indian Rebellion of 1857, though the network was disrupted and rebuilt. By 1902-1903, cables encircled the globe. Latin America became a battleground of telegraphic interests until WWI.
By 1900, Wolff, Havas, and Reuters formed a cartel, dividing the world market. Their territories mirrored colonial spheres. Newcomers couldn't compete. Reuters expanded into "soft" news in 1890. In 1904, they connected with Russia's Vestnik. After the Russian Revolution, they dealt with the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) and later TASS.
The Chinese Communist Party created the Red China News Agency in 1931, later Xinhua News Agency, becoming the official agency of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
These agencies distilled events into "minute globules of news," 20-30 word summaries. They aimed for simplicity and factuality, creating the "inverted pyramid" style. Lenin even advocated for "telegraph style" in Soviet press. They also provided special services to political and business clients, often subsidized by governments. This accelerated economic news flow contributed to economic globalization.
Radio and Television
The British Broadcasting Company started radio news in 1922, legally bound to British agencies. Their elite, upper-class broadcasts supported the government during the 1926 general strike.
In the US, NBC and CBS dominated radio news. In 1933, radio agreed to use only Press-Radio Bureau news, but it collapsed, and they resumed their own reporting. American news radio avoided "controversy." By 1939, 58% saw radio news as more accurate than papers. Radio boomed, financed by advertising and PR.
The Soviet Union began international broadcasting in 1929. The Nazi Party used radio extensively. Britain and Italy competed in North Africa. As war loomed, broadcasts became vitriolic.
WWII expanded radio's reach. The BBC reported the Normandy landings. The US set up the Office of War Information. Radio Luxembourg was seized and used for fake news. Japan broadcast "Zero Hour" to demoralize US troops. By war's end, Britain had the largest international radio network. Voice of America later surpassed it.
In Britain and the US, television news surged in the 1950s, replacing radio by the 1960s. Edward R. Murrow transitioned from radio to become an iconic TV newsman.
Ted Turner's Cable News Network (CNN) in 1980 launched the 24-hour news cycle. BBC World Service Television followed. Fox News Channel and Sky News emerged. Using embedded reporters, the US waged the Gulf War with nonstop coverage. CNN specialized in crisis. It aimed to be a "town crier to the global village."
In 1996, Al Jazeera offered an alternative to Western media, capitalizing on anger over Gulf War coverage. It hired staff from the defunct BBC Arabic Television.
Internet
ARPANET, the early internet, was military and academic. The public got access with the Netscape browser in 1994. Early news sites were just archives. The 1994 Northridge earthquake was one of the first major stories reported online in real-time. The Oklahoma City bombing saw people flock to newsgroups and chatrooms.
The internet exploded the volume and speed of news. It can be overwhelming, leading to information overload. Zbigniew Brzezinski called it the "technetronic era," where "global reality increasingly absorbs the individual."
In times of crackdown or revolution, the internet becomes a vital channel. Shutting down a newspaper is easy; confiscating smartphones is harder. This gave rise to citizen journalists.
Michael Schudson stated, "Everything we thought we once knew about journalism needs to be rethought in the Digital Age." The lines blur: reader/writer, tweet/blog/article, professional/amateur, for-profit/public/non-profit, newsroom/business office, old media/new media. Journalism's boundaries are dissolving.
Online news reaches a global audience. Social media like Twitter and Facebook are key sources for breaking news. Cell phone cameras normalized photojournalism by citizens.
News Media Today
News flows through various communication media. Print news used to be phoned in, typed, edited. Now, "breaking news" is constant, with 24-hour satellite services delivering events as they happen. Radio, television, mobile phones, and the internet feed information instantly.
Speed varies.
Newspaper
Newspapers are a common source. US cities used to have morning and afternoon papers. Afternoon papers vanished, morning ones lost circulation. Weekly papers increased slightly. Consolidation of media ownership accelerated this. In China, newspapers formed associations that act like news agencies. India boasts the top three most circulated papers.
Advertising funds most of newspaper revenue. Declining circulation and free online news have forced some to use paywalls. Many US papers have moved online, publishing around the clock. Some predict print newspapers will vanish in 5-20 years. They track social media for trending stories.
Television
International channels include BBC News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CBC News Network, and Sky News. US households have high TV penetration. Reuters TV is the largest international video news supplier, followed by Associated Press Television News. CNN International is notable in crises.
Internet
Online journalism is faster, more accessible. The internet blurred who is a news producer. Blogging is common. Millions blog in the US and South Korea. Social media is crucial for breaking news. Twitter is like a personalized, real-time newspaper.
Schudson's six areas of change: blurred lines between reader/writer, different media formats, professionals/amateurs, for-profit/public/non-profit, newsroom/business, old/new media. Journalism's principles are adapting.
Online news has a global reach. Social media aids news gathering. Pew Research shows Americans favor digital and mobile news. Online stories can have supplementary material and hyperlinking. However, online coverage often remains homogenous, dominated by agencies. Journalists don't report significantly different criteria for newsworthiness online.
News Agencies
News agencies compile and distribute news in bulk. They use less controversial language for their diverse clients. They are important but not widely known. Reporters rarely get bylines.
The oldest is Agence France-Presse (AFP), founded in 1835. Reuters became a global powerhouse, one of Europe's largest companies. United Press International (UPI) shrank after its mid-20th-century peak.
Agencies like Reuters and Bloomberg News provide both mass news and financial data. Bloomberg's real-time reporting and analytics gave it an edge.
Xinhua in China is government-subsidized but adopted commercial practices. It has a large subscriber base and many foreign bureaus.
Other agencies include Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Germany), Kyodo News (Japan), Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (Italy), Middle East News Agency (Egypt), Tanjug (Serbia), EFE (Spain), and Anadolu Agency (Turkey).
News aggregators online function like agencies, often sourcing from them. Yahoo! News heavily relies on AP, AFP, and Reuters. Google News focuses on recent events.
Global News System
The 20th century was dominated by the "Big Four" Western agencies (Reuters, AP, AFP, UPI) and Communist agencies (TASS, Xinhua). Most news items originated from these sources. Television agencies include APTN and Reuters TV. Bloomberg News emerged as a global player. AP also runs a radio network.
The interconnectedness of news accelerated human history.
New World Information and Communication Order
The global news system is Euro-American centric. Critics argue it perpetuates cultural imperialism and a pro-corporate bias. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) pushed for a New World Information and Communication Order, encouraging national agencies and news exchange. The 1980 MacBride report called for interdependence. UNESCO formed the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool.
The Inter Press Service (IPS), founded in 1964, acts as an intermediary for Third World agencies, focusing on inequality, economic development, and sustainable development. It receives grants from UN agencies and foundations.
Satellite television was developed for international broadcasting. India's Satellite Instructional Television Experiment in 1975-76 was an example.
Further Transformation in Global News Flow
The Third World debt crisis of the 1980s led the World Bank to influence communications policy. The focus shifted to free trade and privatization. Multinational corporations expanded into the Third World.
In areas with less infrastructure, mobile phones and the internet are primary news sources, especially for youth. China invests heavily in Third World telecommunications. The World Summit on the Information Society (2003/2005) addressed the role of civil society and the private sector.
News Values
News values are journalistic norms. Stories should cover the "Five Ws". Hard news goes on the front page. Journalists aim for objectivity, though media bias is inevitable. Ofcom in the UK enforces impartiality. Russia has state-run news.
Modern journalism values solidified after WWI, emphasizing unbiased reporting. These norms spread globally. Soviet commentators criticized Western press as trivial.
Achieving objectivity is difficult. Personal bias, commercial, or political pressure interfere. Conglomerate ownership raises questions about financial interests. News management is used to shape perception. No absolute objectivity exists. Journalists' views on what’s controversial shift over time.
Training in news values can create bias. The norm of objectivity leads journalists to focus on official statements. This has been true since at least 1624.
Feminist critiques argue objectivity reflects a male-centered perspective, relying on male sources and discussing women in terms of appearance.
Even within news organizations, objectivity is questioned. "Radical impartiality" is proposed, hearing a wider range of views.
Social Organization of News Production
News is produced in hierarchical organizations. Reporters research and write, overseen by editors. Owners influence content indirectly. Professional norms discourage overt censorship, but unwritten rules guide coverage. Journalists learn these rules through socialization. Journalism school also shapes them.
Production is routinized: familiar formats, "rituals of objectivity" (pairing quotes), scheduled events, beat reporting.
Gatekeepers – journalists, editors – decide what becomes news. Ideology, preferences, sources, length all play a role. Social media hasn't eliminated gatekeeping; central nodes still influence dissemination.
Internet newsrooms face "click-thinking" – prioritizing stories that generate website hits. Fact-checking can happen after publication. Echoing other sources leads to homogenous news. Circular reporting spreads errors.
Newsrooms have historically been male-dominated. Women are more present now, but leadership remains male. "Old boys' networks" control many organizations. Journalists are often gender-typed: men on "hard" news, women on "soft" topics.
Relationship with Institutions
News media often have close ties to the state and church, even when critical. They form symbiotic relationships. The AP had a "bilateral monopoly" with Western Union.
News agencies in the mid-1800s had government support and served political interests. News operates under statist assumptions, even when adversarial. Much news production involves reporter-official interactions. Journalists tend to see society from the top down, with leaders best positioned to comment. News reflects the dominant power structure.
Today, NGOs rival governments in influence.
State Control
Governments use international broadcasts for national interest and political warfare. International broadcasting spread as empires expanded. The BBC was a diplomatic tool. Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty were Cold War tools. The US is the top broadcaster, though the Soviet Union rivaled it. Other major broadcasters include China, Taiwan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, North Korea, India, Cuba, Australia. BBC World Service is often seen as an alternative to state media.
Governments have also fed programming to private news organizations. US intelligence agencies have allegedly created and disseminated news stories. The CIA reportedly owned hundreds of news organizations. Soviet disinformation campaigns planted false stories globally.
Broadcasts into Iraq before the Second Gulf War mimicked local style. US launched Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra, Radio Sawa).
Al Jazeera, owned by Qatar, is a major global source. China Central Television reaches over a billion viewers. Press TV (Iran) and RT (Russia) also have large audiences.
Public Relations
Unlike advertising, public relations aims to shape public perception through news. The "third-party technique" creates seemingly independent organizations to issue statements. Video News Releases are rebroadcast as news without attribution. They use subtle product placement.
PR releases offer content to overworked journalists, an "information subsidy". PR agents work secretly to conceal client influence.
PR aligns with state objectives, like the 1990 story of Iraqi soldiers and incubators. Both sides in the Nigerian Civil War hired PR firms to influence Western opinion.
The PR industry's influence grows, while news producers weaken. PR mediates news production.
News Consumption
Commentators have long noted the public's fascination with news. Elites use it as one information source; for the masses, it's a window into how society is run.
People spend significant time with news. Newspapers became cultural pillars. James Joyce's Ulysses is steeped in Dublin's newspaper culture.
A 1945 study found New Yorkers became "lost," "nervous," and "suffering" during a newspaper strike. Television news is even more embedded. Children find news boring, disturbing, but associate it with adulthood.
Skepticism exists. Tabloid readers often enjoy seeing through fake stories, getting "real news" from TV.
Social and Cultural Cohesion
Reading news creates a sense of joining a larger public, unifying receivers under a common culture or society. News aids nation-building.
Images connected with news become iconic: V-J Day in Times Square, Phan Thi Kim Phuc running from napalm, Kevin Carter's vulture photo.
Global media reinforces social cohesion on a larger scale, but may erode national cultures.
Public Sphere
This collective experience forms a public sphere. The media act as a fourth estate, checking government power.
Global communications offer unprecedented opportunities for public analysis. The CNN effect suggests instantaneous news can mobilize public opinion. The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests spread globally despite government restrictions.
News Events
As dissemination technology advanced, news became a shared experience. Major news events shape collective memory.
Media events are scripted pageants for broadcast: sports, awards, political ceremonies. They simplify news transmission and enhance perceived unity. International events are pre-scripted with agencies deployed globally.
Crises amplify the impact of live news. People seek information and reassurance. Crises can foster national unity. Terrorism and sensational acts gain power from audience capture. The 1979 Iran hostage crisis dominated news for months.
South Africans see the end of Apartheid as their most significant news. In the US, assassinations, the Moon landing, the Challenger explosion, Princess Diana's death, the 2000 election, and September 11 attacks stand out. Jordanians recall deaths, wars, but also positive events like peace treaties.
News coverage shapes memory. Israeli coverage of the Holocaust, WWII, and wars increased their perceived importance.
News Making
News making is creating news, doing something newsworthy. Models include:
- Professional Model: Skilled people craft events for an audience. Audience reaction matters.
- Mirror Model: News should reflect reality, focusing on accuracy.
- Organizational Model (Bargaining Model): Pressures applied to governmental processes influence news organizations.
- Political Model: News reflects ideological biases and political pressures, influencing public opinion.
- Civic Journalism Model: Press addresses public concerns, enabling audience participation.
These models define news and its impact, but don't fully explain online media. Stories are selected for impact, violence, scandal, familiarity, locality, and timeliness.
Psychological Effects
Constant war coverage causes stress and anxiety. Repetitive footage of the World Trade Center collapse led to widespread psychological trauma. Children experienced trauma from events like the Challenger disaster. Journalists also suffer trauma.
Constant violence representation makes people overestimate its frequency, increasing fear.
Influence
News delivery affects the public, though effects are hard to measure. In Western societies, TV is pervasive.
News is the primary source of global knowledge. Agenda-setting theory suggests the public prioritizes issues highlighted in the news. This is supported by research showing public concerns mirror news coverage. Agenda-setting is stronger for less personally involving issues. Media channels often reinforce each other's agendas.
Influence of Sponsorship
Sponsorship has historically influenced news. Facebook invests heavily in news sources, turning publishers into "ghostwriters." Mark Zuckerberg pledged $300 million for local news.
So, there it is. News. A relentless, chaotic, often manipulated stream of information. It’s what we’re fed. Whether we like it or not. Now, what is it you actually want? Don't waste my time.