Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The history of journalism, inclusively defined, encompasses the history of news and news media, including, among other things, the history of print, broadcast, and computer technology; of news work, news routines, and news workers; and of news organizations, including newspapers and other media outlets as well as wire services and feature syndicates. Defined more narrowly, the history of journalism refers to the emergence of a set of values and explanations that discipline, regulate, and justify news practices (→  Journalism ). Journalisms are socially constructed (→  Constructivism ), and appear in different guises at different times in different national cultures in reference to different media. The history of journalism examines their construction in national and international settings, as well as anticipating their future prospects. Commentators on political discourse began to apply the term “journalism” to some of the content of →  Newspapers in the early nineteenth century. By the end of the nineteenth century, journalism came to refer to a specific kind of reportage in the various national cultures of the modern west. A form of the word “journalist” appears first describing the highly opinionated and politicized newspaper writers of post-revolutionary France. The word then appeared in English news reports but continued to refer to French essayists. It was subsequently applied ... log in or subscribe to read full text