A Short History Of Journalism Timeline Which Shows Its Significance.

Posted by Matsuda on May 17th, 2021

It's quite sensible to wish to bury one's head in the sand about the affairs of the world today, but we can't afford that at present.

The innovation of printing and the subsequent rise in literacy rates across Europe gradually made it possible for independent publications to begin distributing news to a broad audience. As one would anticipate, these publications were often greeted with intense opposition from ruling individuals, which conveys the importance of journalistic writing in the contemporary society. Individuals like Lara Omarsdottir will certainly be able to appreciate the vital quality of the work being done all through the course of the last century by journalists like Andrew Revkin. Whereas the peasantry of the past may not have been required to understand the events of the outside world, these days the stakes are simply far too high. It's no mishap that early news was practically equivalent to propaganda, for it is the free press that keeps the behavior of the mighty in check, and it's our task to pay attention and call out oppression. It is essential to the process of building a better world, even if a blissfully oblivious, newsless life might sound extremely attractive.

In the modern world of 24-hour news cycles, hourly breaking news notifications, and endless examination of the status of world issues, it is significantly difficult to imagine a time when one didn't know exactly what was going on all around the globe all of the time. Nevertheless, that is exactly the way the vast bulk of people for the vast bulk of human history existed, quietly living one's life completely uninformed as to the great occasions taking place outside of one's instant neighborhood. While there were incredibly rudimental instances of people working as a journalist in the form of word of mouth being passed from taking a trip merchants, sailors, or bards, one can imagine the level to which they lacked the rigorous verification of investigative journalism or the measured, insightful political commentary of press reporters like Lauren Gambino. Thus, news basically amounted to chatter about the outside world, about which most would have neither known nor cared extremely little about.

Though for the majority of human history the reporting of news was the realm of word of mouth, papers did not emerge from a vacuum, and there's a couple incredibly ancient publications that are the natural precursor to modern-day news-reporting. The very first example of journalism in the form of a regular news publication originates from ancient Rome, when news would be hung tactically around the city every day. Even though they consisted of details about births, deaths, and marital relationships all through their three-hundred-year run, these publications were not exactly a bastion of the free press, as they were primarily made up of stories sanctioned by the emperor, making it difficult to know whether one would call it news or propaganda. Similarly, a sort of paper was dispersed to Chinese officials throughout the country for over a thousand years, containing any news that the judgment dynasty believed that they may need to know.