WHAT?fS THE NEWS? WHAT?fS THE NEWS? This distinctly human obsession apparently dates all the way back to our original acquisition of the use of language itself. But the Who? What? Where? When? How? Why? presentation of that news that we are so used to today took us a bit longer to develop -- say, not till the middle of the nineteenth century -- as Stephens shows in this highly readable book.
Taking on the task of relating the entire history of news telling from its very beginnings lost in the prehistoric past all the way up to the cable television and Internet of today seems impossible; yet Stephens certainly makes a good try. He recreates the prehistoric period with sociological accounts of the vocal exchange of news in illiterate societies by the constant pestering of visitors from outside the village with ?gWhat?fs the news??h He uses the letters of Cicero, among others, to demonstrate the spread of news during the Roman Empire. He then goes on to the show the slow spread of the printing press, the development of, first, weekly newspapers, then dailies, and so on up to the instantaneous reporting of the Gulf War via CNN.
As he tells his tale, he leaps us from ancient Rome to ancient China and right back again so smoothly we hardly notice. Along the way he points out the vast changes that have taken place from the days our ancestors bemoaned the almost total lack of reliable news up to the present state in which we are constantly deluged with so much, we can?ft begin to keep up.
Still, I would have liked to see a more thorough description of the impact the instantaneousness of the telegraph had on news reporting, particularly as Stephens himself points out that it was the great cost of sending a single word over those erratic wires that led to the very precise reporting of news as every word now literally counted?DThough the description of the development of the news reporter as a profession he gives us instead (including the origin of the term ?gbeat?h reporter) is quite enlightening, it is also a bit longwinded. And contrary to the worldwide scope he gives us for the ancient period, for all practical purposes, from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards the title should read A History of AMERICAN News. Yet, these are only minor complaints about what is otherwise a very fine read.
. . . . and that being said about the read itself and so rated . . . .
Why did this great read set me back a whopping $53.95 when the physical book it?fs been incarcerated in LITERALLY flops??? Hold it in one hand; FLOP!?@Grab it with both hands; FLOP! FLOP! Slam it to the floor in disgust; FLOP! FLOP! FLOP! Compared to this flopping flounder masquerading as a trade paperback, comic books are printed on vellum and bound in leather! And (FLOP!) believe (FLOP!) me (FLOP!) all (FLOP!) this (FLOP!) FLOP!ing (FLOP!) makes (FLOP!) it (FLOP!) very (FLOP!) difficult (FLOP!) to (FLOP!) con(FLOP!)cen(FLOP!)trate (FLOP!) on (FLOP!) the (FLOP!) read! FLOP! FLOP! FLOP!
If all this flopping were priced a reasonable ten to possibly twenty dollars, I could still have spent my hours reading it contentedly thinking, ?gYeah, this is just about the read I wanted, all right!?h But $53.95????@I angrily spent those hours fuming instead, ?gI paid THAT much for THIS????
So, to whoever decided on the flimsy packaging and ridiculous price of this fine read, I just want to say . . . (alas, all Ma Amazon?fs rules allow me is) . . . SHAME ON YOU!!!
| Publisher | Wadsworth Publishing; 2nd edition (September 6, 1996) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 353 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0155018574 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0155018570 |
| Item Weight | 1.28 pounds |
| Dimensions | 7.75 x 0.75 x 9.5 inches |
