Diffusion of the news paradigm 1850-2000

Media history is much more than a collection of chronological narratives set within national borders. As a social system media has several sustaining parts, at the same time different and interdependent. Some of these parts are international in origin while some are truly nationally or regionally unique in their development. Thus media history internationally can serve as a laboratory to help detect the impact of political ideologies and other traditions, which influence journalism as a textual genre. It is in this spirit the following chapters have been written, collected and edited. This anthology is topically centred on the news paradigm: its origin and diffusion over more than a century. It also contrasts the news paradigm with some of its opposites in journalism history. Even when contributors vary methodologically – essays and empirically based overviews intermingle with systematic content analyses – they have the forms, the qualities and the substance of journalism in mind as a guiding principle.