What were medieval times journalist-types called?

[Razz]

I have an interesting question. I have a player who wants to play an Urban Druid, but her role in the world is similar to a journalist. She wishes to work for an employer who has her gather information for them to collect and spread throughout the city. A newspaper, so to speak.

My problem is I do know newspapers existed in 18th century, and I think they did beyond (obviously not a large production, because there was no printing press). Possibly. I'm no history buff. I believe the main way people received their news was from travling minstrels and bards, and official news came from the town criers.

But I am sure there were those who collected information, composed and outlined it, organized the information, checked the facts and rumors, and then spread the news via written text even back then. Or am I wrong? Again, I am no history buff. I'm going off assumptions.

I ask the community if you know anything how "journalists" worked then, and what was the correct term for such people?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Moonstone Spider]

Bard.

Seriously, newspapers didn't exist back then. Most of the population (I'm going European here) couldn't read, including the nobility. Only priests could read, hence the term "Cleric" winding up synonymous with priest. Cleric simply means a person who can write things down.

Written goods were very precious. Books were fantastically valuable and a library with ten books in it would have been a treasure trove of knowledge.

 

[KrazyHades]

Well, you have your bards, the most common way of spreading news. But since that's taken, and you're not really moving information from city to city (correct my if I'm wrong, but it seems you are mainly based in one city). In this instance you could call her an "investigator for the *newspaper name here*" or some such. You could also call her an Information Gatherer, and Informant, a Spy, a Story-Searcher, or some such.

 

[Theron]

There really weren't people like that.

There were chroniclers, but they were much more along the lines of diarists writing from their own perspectives and leaving it to history to sort them out. Remember, moveable type wasn't invented until the 15th century, at the tail end of the medieval period. Much of a medieval historian's task is separating the wheat from the chaff while reading these personal memoirs.

The closest thing to a public dissemination of information would be a town cryer, but even his information would be in the way of official statements or possibly things he'd been paid to proclaim.

By the late 15th century, the power of the press was already becoming known, though not for the dissemination of news, but mainly political propaganda. According to Wikipedia, the first known printed newspaper was published in 1605, which would put it well outside the medieval period.

Of course, in a fantasy world, it's up to you. I might recommend Terry Pratchett's The Truth for some inspiration on introducing a newspaper to a fantasy setting.

 

[Clueless]

The printing press not only made it so that newspapers could be printed - it also spread *literacy*. There were no consumers for journalism before that - only nobles and rulers would be interested in intelligence of that nature. And that's less of a reporters job and more of a spy's job. The closest analog (stretching it) to that role in a historical context would be scholarly tutors for the nobles, perhaps jesters in courts (as an aspect of their job), or priests (gathering info for their church). Merchants and criminal organizations may have that too - depending on the size of their purses and temperament.

If you're looking at a fully medieval world - she has no role. In Renaissance perhaps? As there's a little more literacy and audience for the work.

But it might be none of this are relevant - are you in a standard fantasy world or in a truly historical medieval world? Those two things are *very* different things. So your question may not even actually be relevant. You might not even need to make these comparisons and restrict yourself that way. (Are you playing DnD or are you playing Pendragon? )

 

[PatrickLawinger]

I have an interesting question. I have a player who wants to play an Urban Druid, but her role in the world is similar to a journalist. She wishes to work for an employer who has her gather information for them to collect and spread throughout the city. A newspaper, so to speak.

Um, gossip? Gossip spreader? (those are the nice things I could think of )

Really, as was said above, the notion of "Journalist" is really very recent. Frankly, even "modern day" journalists show their bias in most cases (both left and right).

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Words that come to mind: Pamphleteer, scrivener, chronicler, crier (as in town crier).

True journalists may not have existed until late in the real world, but I like the idea of broadsheets in a renaissance kind of fantasy world. Incidentally, the very first newspapers appeared in the early 1600's, according to that bastion of accuracy, Wikipedia...

 

[Enkhidu]

I have an interesting question. I have a player who wants to play an Urban Druid, but her role in the world is similar to a journalist. She wishes to work for an employer who has her gather information for them to collect and spread throughout the city. A newspaper, so to speak.

My problem is I do know newspapers existed in 18th century, and I think they did beyond (obviously not a large production, because there was no printing press). Possibly. I'm no history buff. I believe the main way people received their news was from travling minstrels and bards, and official news came from the town criers.

But I am sure there were those who collected information, composed and outlined it, organized the information, checked the facts and rumors, and then spread the news via written text even back then. Or am I wrong? Again, I am no history buff. I'm going off assumptions.

I ask the community if you know anything how "journalists" worked then, and what was the correct term for such people?

Thanks for your help.

There's no pre-printing press equivelant for the mass media (and no pre-movable type equivelant for news). The people most likely to share info from thorp to thorp were tinkers, merchants, and traders. Those most likely to write down this information were the clergy. And those most likely to know local information ranged from the town gossip to the heralds of the nobility.

Then again, we're dealing with a magical society in which a sizable portion of the rich and powerful (i.e. everyone with a PC class) is literate...

What's most likely to happen is that your "reporters" would be heralds based out of the largest cities, using a network of paid gossips and town criers to disseminate information to the masses. You could also add guild of players (or more than one) who's only job would be to take the news and put in in a more palatable form (that of quickly rehearsed and produced plays).

 

[VirgilCaine]

Bard.

Stole my answer.

 

[Baron Opal]

"Spy"

"Pest"

"Meddling Kids"