The Language of Periodical News in Seventeenth-Century England

Seventeenth-century English news writers knew there was a market for news - about that there is no doubt. Right from the very first decade, there was what has been variously described as a 'thirst', 'appetite', or even 'itch' for news about contemporary events and affairs. However, whilst the reader [...]
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Seventeenth-century English news writers knew there was a market for news - about that there is no doubt. Right from the very first decade, there was what has been variously described as a 'thirst', 'appetite', or even 'itch' for news about contemporary events and affairs. However, whilst the readers were out there, they were not prepared to hand over their two pence or penny for a weekly news pamphlet or gazette unless convinced that what they were getting was worth the money. And it was this that disturbed and troubled news writers then just as much as it does now in the twenty-first century. In short, how does the writer present news? What language do they use to persuade the news readers that the money they are spending is a good investment? It is this question, which lies at the forefront of the seventeenth-century 'news revolution', that is examined in the updated edition of The Language of Periodical News in Seventeenth-Century England. Nicholas Brownlees follows the beginnings and development of seventeenth-century English periodical print news, and sees how contemporary news writers set about responding to these fundamental presentational and communicative concerns.This interdisciplinary examination of seventeenth-century news discourse contains innovative analyses regarding a rich variety of topics including: the role of translation in early periodical news; the language of hard news in corantos and news pamphlets; forms and styles of epistolary news; fluctuating editorial strategies in addressing and involving the reader; text structure and prototypical headlines; english news discourse within a wider European news context; the language of propaganda; periodicity and the reporting of the Tuscan crisis in 1653; the language of 'Advertisements' in The London Gazette; and, the changing fortunes and semantics of News, Intelligence and Advice.