Journalism for Kids : Chapter 2 : A brief history of NEWS
I love to talk…especially when there’s a big group of friends around!
Talking is the earliest form of spreading news! In early days too, when people couldn’t read or write, news was spread through speech. People would tell their friends about the events of the day, the friends in turn would tell some other friends and thus, one piece of news would spread far and wide through a lot of mouths! However, most of the time, not everyone would get to know the details of the events that occurred, and a lot of times, the message that reached people was totally outdated, or simply wrong.
The earliest known written language was invented by ancient Sumerians. Their form of writing was one in which a sign or alphabet represented a sound. The age of writing had begun and it would change man’s life forever…
Writing was a new field and every one wanted to learn it! Slowly as instruments for writing and reading were developed, people also found other different ways and means to spread news. For example, they used monkey mail … you have heard of it, right? And of course, pigeons would fly directly to someone with a small slip of paper. As means of travel improved, news spread faster.
Stop right now and think … if YOU were around in those times, what modes and means would you have used to ensure that whatever you had to say reached people at different places?
This timeline shows the development of writing and the printing press, which was instrumental in starting a revolution in the world of news.
In olden days, newspapers were the only instruments used for spreading news. Today, you can get news from a variety of instruments. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the latest – the Internet… all these are used very extensively for bringing news to you from around the world today. These instruments, that carry news to you, are called media. The basic purpose of media is to carry news across to as many people as possible all over the world. Thus, the end result of a news medium is mass communication.
Written by admin on March 27th, 2007 with no comments.
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