What were medieval times journalist-types called?

[Gentlegamer]

"heretic"

 

[sus323]

The suggestions already given (bard...etc.) are good ones.

Another to consider is the term Advocate. This was the closest the later Middle Ages got to a lawyer. They would be hired by nobles or merchants to represent them in legal cases. Many of these were pretty funny by today's standards.

While "lawyer" might not be what your player had in mind for their Urban Druid, it would be close to being an investigator.

A pretty acurate version of an Advocate in action can be seen in the movie "The Advocate" where the lawyer/advocate must defend a pig in a murder case.

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

Her major problem is thinking too modern, and not enough medieval fantasy. In case you're all wondering, the setting is in Forgotten Realms and her Urban Druid is based in Waterdeep. I remember reading in City of Splendors: Waterdeep that they sort of have a "newspaper" outlet in the city. I have to scan through the book to find it, but I distinctly remembering finding it in there because it was something very modern and not expected (but with a place like Waterdeep, it was bound to happen).

Now she has a goal for her character. Since Waterdeep has no official sage's guild, her character will now plan to start one and form it into a "news" business for the city of Waterdeep.

Also might want to check out the "Broadcryers of Waterdeep" articles [scroll down] in the Realmslore Archives. Some useful information on the tabloids of the city.

 

[Rogue765]

Woodblock printing was invented in China in the 3rd Century AD. Movable clay type was invented in China in 1040, later made out of wood. Movable metal type was invented in Korea between 1234 and 1241. (Source Wikipedia article on Printing).

You could easily have printing be invented whenever you want it to be in your campaign.

 

[Whimsical]

More info, please I run Faerun, and would love to include this in my games somehow

Well, in my case the DM had the planar invasion from another world. A dire thing indeed. An invasion that was halted when my character studied the language and culture of the invaders and realized that they simply wanted land. Since they come from a Suckworld (imagine Krypton from the Superman movies), everyone simply knew that you had to fight someone to get land. This was an archetypical concept that really never needed to be spoken allowed. When my cleric of Denier; god of glyphs, words, language, and ideas; successfully conveyed the alien concept that our world has uninhabited land ready for the taking, the dire delibitating invasion transformed into a friendly immigration.

Later on, my cleric visited their homeworld, which had a tech level one level above standard D&D. When she first encountered mass produced book, and then learned how they were created, she had a clerigasm. She then proceeded to introduce the printing press to her world.

Pretty awesome, but it doesn't compare to going back in time a couple of thousand years previous, finding that faerun was part of a Dragonstar high-tech high-magic universe with no divine magic, then creating the forgotten realms pantheon when she teaches her first students (Denier, Mystra, Helm, etc.) how to be clerics of Ao.

My cleric was definitely "cleric of the month" for her god since the beginning.