Number of words: 128

The printing press enabled news to reach a larger audience at a vastly reduced cost, though it was not the death knell for oral news exchanged in coffeehouses, at home, and in city streets. In the sixteenth century, news was still being called out by criers in the streets and recited in the form of poems, or “news ballads.” These more primitive forms of news remained necessary because illiteracy was still prevalent in society and so the old methods of oral news held fast. Also, government controls often prevented enterprising reporting, while news-gathering methods remained disorganized and ultimately untrustworthy. Propaganda flowed freely from the printing press, and there were no established news organizations outside of the government.

Excerpted from page 20 of ‘Regret the Error’ by Craig Silverman