An untold story lies behind the news that we read, hear or see every day and the media sources that we mine constantly as historians. This reading seminar introduces students to the major themes and approaches to the historical study of news from the ‘invention’ of modern newspapers in the seventeenth century to the multiplication of media today. Topics include journalism, propaganda, public opinion, news agencies, radio, television, and Twitter.

The course will study how the meaning of ‘news’ has emerged from a nexus of politics, economics, technology and society. To examine this, we will consider production, collection, dissemination, and reception of news. We will investigate the emergence of journalistic forms, such as the interview, and seek to understand the development of concepts of objectivity, neutrality, propaganda and truth within news. Furthermore, the course moves beyond the presentation of news to consider news infrastructures and institutions, asking, for example, how new technologies such as the telegraph impacted political control of the news, its geographical origins, and its price. The course does not assume a priori that news matters, but will consider carefully the potential impact of news on public opinion and policy makers. We will discuss the effects of news and consider how news can both create and undermine public spheres. While we focus on the English-speaking world, the course examines the hidden spatial connections of news and explores how different media infrastructures can create different global geographies. By the end of this course, you’ll never hear, read or see the news in the same way again!