History
A short history
People have always wanted to know what is happening beyond their own street. What has changed is how quickly a message reaches the reader, who decides what they are shown and how many such messages arrive each day. A short timeline helps explain why there is so much news today and why it pays to have your own routine for it.
Once you had to go out and fetch the news. Now it comes to you on its own, and deciding whether to let it in is up to us.
Timeline
- Before the 17th century
News spreads through handwritten newsletters and letters: merchants and travellers pass on what they saw and heard in other towns. Such reports are almost impossible to verify.
- 1605
Relation begins publication in Strasbourg and is considered the first regular printed newspaper in Europe. For the first time, news reaches readers on a schedule.
- 19th century
The telegraph makes it possible to send messages over long distances in minutes. Newspapers receive reports from faraway places faster than letters ever arrived.
- 20th century
Radio and then television bring the news straight into the home. Bulletins air at set times, and listeners or viewers decide for themselves whether to switch on.
- 21st century
Online feeds update continuously. Messages arrive as notifications, friends forward them, and the order in which they appear is increasingly decided by recommendation algorithms.
What changes when the news comes to you
While a newspaper came out once a day or once a week, reading had natural limits: the issue ended, and there was time to think before the next one. A radio or TV bulletin also had a beginning and an end. A feed works differently: it has no last page, so you have to stop on your own.
The second change concerns who selects the messages. That used to be the bulletin editor's job; now a large part of it is done by software that adjusts to whatever caught your eye. It means you no harm, but it does not take your peace of mind into account either: what matters to it is that you keep scrolling.
The third change is the speed of retelling. A report about some event, say a record heatwave or a surprise match score, can pass through dozens of forwards within an hour. It shifts a little with each one, and what reaches you may no longer be the fact but someone else's impression of it.
Related sections
- People
Who makes the news: the reporter, the editor, the photo editor, the fact-checker, the columnist and the reader who shares.
- Archive
The magazine's sections and what is known about the old addresses on this domain.
- Articles
The magazine's topics: reading routines, genres, headlines, photos out of context, reposts, children and the news. Plus the article catalogue.
Sources
- Encyclopedic sources on the history of print
- Library materials on media literacy
The magazine draws on general principles of media literacy and encyclopedic knowledge of the history of print. How feeds work, notification settings and menu names in your apps may differ from the general descriptions given here.