When News Was New. Terhi Rantanen. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 154 pp.

The clever title of this brief historical study harks back to earlier times as changing technology provided a constantly renewed window through which to view what was happening in the world. Ranging from medieval storytellers through nineteenth-century news agencies to the bloggers of today, the book’s theme is that “news” has meant very different things at different times.

Director of the global media and communications master’s program at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and long a student of news agencies, Terhi Rantanen provides a brief but insightful survey of how technology has helped to shape our perception of what “news” is and means.  [Read more...]