The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself

Pettegree (The Book in the Renaissance) delineates the history of news delivery in Europe over the course of four centuries in this comprehensive and occasionally dense volume. He tackles this ambitious task both methodically and confidently, charting the ways in which news initially traveled, beginning in 1450 with the years following the invention of printing. Publishers then experimented with pamphlets and broadsheets, new types of books that were "far shorter and cheaper than the theological and scholarly texts that had dominated the market in manuscripts." These helped to make news a part of popular culture. Pettegree attributes the early need for political and economic information to their roles in commerce. Merchants in 14th and 15th-century Italy, for example, had to obtain "vital data on which to base business decisions." They relied on it. "But to act on a report that turned out to be false, or exaggerated, could be more disastrous than not to have acted at all." Trustworthiness was key back then and continues to be a primary concern in journalism. Though Pettegree does not directly address parallels between the emerging news industry centuries ago and the complexities of mass media today, readers will recognize them. The similarities keep his discussion relevant. (Mar.)