Precisely what a journalism career looked like through the years.

It may sounds amazing to us now, but for the majority of human history individuals has no idea what was going on beyond their community.

Whilst word of mouth may have been the primary source of news up until the innovation of the printing press in the 15th century, there are a couple of examples of what one could regard as early versions of the newspaper scattered throughout ancient history. The first could be found in ancient Rome, when everyday publications were hung in public areas informing the public of happenings around the Empire. This was maybe more like propaganda than the complimentary press of the numerous branches of journalism today, just truly promoting narratives sanctioned by the emperor and senate, but it did include a list of births, marital relationships, and deaths too. A comparable publication was distributed amongst Chinese officials to keep bureaucrats informed of matters that may impact them. This ran for over a thousand years up until the beginning of the 20th century, making it the longest running publication in human history.

With the innovation of print media and a more literate population, news could be distributed like never prior to in the latter half of the last millennium. Early ventures into informing the public were, quite predictably, often met strong resistance from the ruling governments, who would often trouble or closed down the independent publications that made up the press. As time passed news groups started to form, where a host of journalists would seek out and compose stories which would then be offered to several publications. We then had the newspapers that a person would still acknowledge today, prior to the rise of various types of broadcast journalism with individuals like Lester Holt and Lara Omarsdottir benefiting from mediums like television, and later the web. Today, more so than ever before, the news is deeply woven into the fabric of our every day lives, which would likely be a shock to the billions of individuals who lived and died with no understanding of the world outside their community.

In the modern-day age of 24-hour news cycles, crucial investigative journalism, and important happenings proliferated on social networks, frequently long prior to it appears on more well-established outlets, it can appear unthinkable that for much of human history no one knew, nor particularly cared, about what was going on in the huge wide world. What was taking place out there was unlikely to affect them, and vice versa, so why concern? The only real examples of journalism for the vast bulk of human history originated from travelling merchants, sailors, and bards, who would regale individuals with tales of foreign lands and far-off happenings. Certainly, this lacked the fastidious confirmation of modern journalism from the similarity Eugene Scott, but it was written down by ancient scribes, although as practically no one might read, it was for the function of historical record instead of spreading news to the people.