preview

History of Newspapers

Good Essays

The History of Newspapers
Today, people can use newspapers to find out many things. One can use the newspaper to check sports scores, get the day's news, read "feel good" stories, or even find out their horoscope. It was not always that way. From the "Acta Diurna," reported in the ancient Roman empire, to the New York
Times, newspapers have come a long way. In this report, the distance that newspapers have traveled since their inception is going to be outlined.
Before literacy was commonplace in societies, town criers would announce the news of the land to the land's people. These criers used oratory skills to spread the news on crossroads and the marketplace. Messengers would be commissioned to report to the …show more content…

Perhaps that is where our dateline comes from. Early in the 17th century, regularly printed newspapers became more of the rule as opposed to the exception.
Weekly newspapers began circulation in Frankfort and Vienna (1615),
Hamburg (1616), Berlin (1617), and Amsterdam (1618). England was not far behind as corantos were being printed. Corantos were single sheet tracts dealing with current foreign affairs. In 1655, the "Gazette" was printed in Oxford England. The "Gazette" was the first regularly released English newspaper. It was released weekly. As newspapers were making great strides in England, big steps were also being taken by them in the way of colonizing.
When the English colonies develop, so did newspapers.

In the year 1690, Benjamin Harris tried to print the first newspaper in colonial America. Authorities banned his newspaper ("Publick Occurences Both
Forreign and Domestick") saying that he was printing without a license to print and he was printing "reflections of a very high nature." The next attempts by others would be successful.
In 1704, John Campbell started the "Boston Newsletter." This became
America's first regularly printed newspaper. This paper paved the way for newspapers to develop all throughout the colonies. As the colonies attempted to steer away from England, newspapers became an outlet for anti-England propaganda. Along with

Get Access