The Paradoxes of Journalism History

Abstract

In order to extricate journalism from broader media history, we need to better develop ways of understanding the generic characteristics of journalism over time and across geo-political space. This paper will aim to address what could be termed certain paradoxes of journalism's history; paradoxes which relate to our definitions of the generic boundaries of journalism and flux across those boundaries. Engaging with the complexities of these historical paradoxes will, we may hope, contribute to our understanding of what makes this set of practices distinct in the present and also what we may want to retain of its range of features in some technologically reconfigured future. Journalism's current crises and opportunities, with their implications for the broader qualities of public communication, need us to consider it in all its historical complexity, not just as a profit-making machine which has broken down. Furthermore, the only way to fully begin to grasp journalism's current potential is to consider how it has formed and mutated over the centuries as a global phenomenon. Propelled by both intellectual and technological developments, journalism history is moving out from its confinement in the margins of other disciplinary areas. Journalism studies worldwide is providing a wealth of opportunities for scholars. This paper argues that we need to embrace more ambitious dialogues to clarify our understanding of journalism in itself as well as in its intersections with other fields, at the same time as becoming involved in methodological conversations about the exploitation of digital resources.