Narrative strategies in the origin of journalism: An analysis of the first Spanish-language gazettes

Authors

  • Javier Díaz Noci Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract

The topic of our study is journalism as a narrative genre. Before becoming periodical, newssheets adopted many forms at the end of the sixteenth and throughout the seventeenth centuries, which we aim to typologize before conducting a corpus-based analysis (Biber, 2009, 2012), in which pre-determined categories will be applied in search of patterns. In order to prove the validity and productivity of this approach in an exploratory manner, we have applied those methods to a reduced corpus of some of the first gazettetype printed newssheets in the Spanish language, so as to longitudinally extend this strategy in further research to many other corpora of miscellaneous newssheets. This first tentative sample is composed of four newssheets published from 1597 to 1621, our goal being to trace the patterns and continuities of a narratological model for the early days of Spanish journalism. In our opinion, and following an Italian style detailed by Panfilo Persico in Il Segretario (Venice, 1620), narrative newswriting strategies, at least in the Mediterranean area, were most especially consolidated during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), and were even present in Spanish gazettes in one of the most flourishing periods of activity, the decade of 1683, because of the Turkish Wars (Díaz Noci, 2008).

Keywords

Early Modern journalism, communication history, narratology, newswriting

References

ADAM, J.-M. (1987). Le récit. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

ADAM, J.-M.; REVAZ, F. (1996). L’analyse des récits. Paris: Seuil.

BAENA, F.; FERNÁNDEZ TRAVIESO, C.; ESPEJO, C.; DÍAZ NOCI, J. (2014). “Codificación y representación cartográfica de noticias. Aplicación de las humanidades digitales al estudio del periodismo de la Edad Moderna”. El Profesional de la Información, 23(5), pp. 519-526. http://dx.doi.org/10.3145/epi.2014.sep.09

BAL, M. (2009). Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

BERNING, N. (2011). Narrative Means to Journalistic Ends. A Narratological Analysis of Selected Journalistic Reportages. Berlin: Springer.

BIBER, D. (2009, 2012). “Corpus-Based and Corpus-driven Analyses of language Variation and Use”. In: HEINE, B.; NARROG, H. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199544004.013.0008

BOYS, J. J. E. (2012). London’s News Press and the Thirty Years War. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.

BROERSMA, M. (2007). Form and Style in Journalism. European Newspapers and the Representation of News 1880-2005. Leuven-Paris-Dudley, MA: Peeters.

BROWNLEES, N. (1999). Corantos and newsbooks: Language and discourse in the first English newspapers (1620-1641). Pisa: Edizioni ETS.

— (2008). “Telling news in mid-seventeenth century newsbooks”. In: DOUTHWAITE, J.; PEZZINI, D. Words in action: diachronic and synchronic approaches to English discourse. Studies in honour of Ermanno Barisone. Genova: Edizioni culturali internazionali Genova, pp. 106-117.

— (2011a). “Tracing the historical development of news discourse in electronic corpora”. In: MORENA, A. and NOWAK, Z. (eds.). Cultural Development, Artistic Creation & Economic Growth. Florence: Ingorda, pp. 61-73.

— (2011b). The language of periodical news in seventeenth-century England. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

— (2012). “Reporting the news in English and Italian diplomatic correspondence”. In: DOSSENA, M.; del LUNGO CAMICIOTTI, G. (eds). Letter writing in late modern Europe. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 121-137. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/pbns.218.08bro

— (2016). “‘Newes also came by Letters’: Functions and Features of Epistolary News in English News Publications of the Seventeenth Century”. In: RAYMOND, J.; MOXHAM, N. (eds.). News Networks in Early Modern Europe. Leiden: Brill, pp. 394-419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004277199

CECCONI, E. (2009). “Comparing seventeenth-century news broadsides and occasional news pamphlets”. In: JUCKER, A. H. (ed). Early Modern English News Discourse. Newspapers, Pamphlets and Scientific News Discourse. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 137-157.

CHARTIER, R.; ESPEJO, C. (2012). La aparición del periodismo en Europa. Comunicación y propaganda en el Barroco. Madrid: Marcial Pons.

CLARIDGE, C. (2000). “Pamphlets and Early Newspapers. Political Interaction vs News Reporting”. In: UNGERER, F. (ed). English media texts past and present. Language and textual structure. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 25-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/pbns.80.04cla

CONBOY, M. (2007). The Language of the News. London: Routledge.

— (2010). The Language of Newspapers: Socio-historical Perspectives. London etc.: Bloomsbury.

DÍAZ NOCI, J. (2008). “El Mediterráneo en guerra: relaciones y gacetas españolas sobre la guerra contra los turcos en la década de 1680”. In: CIVIL, P.; CREMOUX, F.; SANZ HERMIDA, J.S. (coords.). España y el mundo mediterráneo a través de las Relaciones de Sucesos: Actas del IV Coloquio Internacional sobre Relaciones de Sucesos: (Paris, 23-25 de septiembre de 2004). Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, pp. 131-140.

— (2012). “Dissemination of News in the Spanish Baroque”. Media History, 18(3-4), pp. 409-421. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2012.721648

— (2014). “Narratology of Online News”. In: MESO, K.; LARRONDO, A.; TOUS-ROVIROSA, A. (cords.). Shaping the News Online. Covilha: LabCom, pp. 171-192.

— (2016). “The Iberian Position in European News Networks: A Methodological Approach”. In: RAYMOND, J.; MOXHAM, N. (eds.). News Networks in Early Modern Europe. Leiden: Brill, pp. 193-215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004277199_009

ESPEJO, C. (2008). “El impresor sevillano Juan Gómez de Blas y los orígenes de la prensa periódica. La Gazeta Nueva de Sevilla (1661-1667)”. Zer, 13(25), pp. 243-267.

— (2011). “European Communication Networks in the Early Modern Age: A New Framework of Interpretation of the Birth of Journalism”. Media History, 17(2), pp. 189-202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2011.554730

— (2015). “La circulación de las noticias en España a finales del siglo XVI. Relaciones de suceso de Rodrigo de Cabrera (1595-1600) sobre las guerras turcas”. Estudios del mensaje periodístico, 21(1), pp. 89-103.

— (2016). “The Invention of the Gazette. Design Standardization in Spanish Newspapers, 1600–1650”. Media History, 22, pp. 296-316. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2016.1149458

ESPEJO, C.; BAENA, F. (2015). “A Critique of Periodicity in Early Modern Journalism. The First Spanish Serial Gazette: Gazeta de Roma in Valencia (1618–1620)”, European Review, 23(3), pp. 341-353. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1062798715000046

— (2016). “The Seville printer Juan de Cabrera (1623-1631): The Production of Serial News Pamphlets in 17th Century Spain”. Communication & Society, 29(4), pp. 203-218. http://dx.doi.org/10.15581/003.29.4.sp.203-217

ETTINGHAUSEN, H. (1993). La Guerra dels Segadors a través de la premsa de l’època. Barcelona: Curial.

— (2015). How the Press Began. The Pre-periodical Printed News in Early Modern Europe. A Coruña: SIELAE.

EXPÓSITO, R. (2014). Informació i persuasió: en els orígens de la premsa catalana (c. 1500-1720). [PhD dissertation]. Girona: Universitat de Girona.

FACCHINETTI, R.; BROWNLEES, N.; BÖS, B.; FRIES, U. (2012). News as Changing Texts: Corpora, Methodologies and Analysis. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

FRIES, U.; SCHNEIDER, P. (2000). “ZEN: Preparing the Zurich English Newspaper Corpus”. In F. UNGERER (ed). English Media Texts Past and Present. Language and Textual Structure. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 3-24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/pbns.80.03fri

GROESEN, M. van; HELMERS, H. (2016). “Managing the News in Early Modern Europe, 1550-1800”. Media History, pp. 1-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2016.1234683

GUINARD, J.-P. (1973). La presse espagnole de 1737 à 1791: formation et signification d’un genre. Paris: Centre de Recherches Hispaniques; Institut d’Études Hispaniques.

HAFFEMAYER, S. (1997). “Les gazettes de l’Ancien Régime: Approche quantitative pour l’analyse d’un “espace de l’information”. Histoire & Mesure, 12(1-2), pp. 69-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/hism.1997.1486

— (2002). L’information dans la France du XVIIe siècle : la gazette Renaudot de 1647 à 1663. Paris; Genève: H. Champion; Éditions Statkine.

INFELISE, M. (2005). “Los orígenes de las gacetas. Sistemas y prácticas de la información entre los siglos XVI y XVII”. Manuscrits, 23, pp. 31-44.

— (2016). “The History of a Word: Gazzetta / Gazette”. In J. RAYMOND, N. MOXHAM (eds.). News Networks in Early Modern Europe. Leiden: Brill, pp. 243-260. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004277199_011

HERMAN, D.; JAHN, M.; RYAN, M.-L. (2005). Routledge Encyclopaedia of Narrative Theory. London: Routledge.

KOOPMANS, J.W. (2016). “The Varying Lives and Layers of Mid-eighteenth-century News Reports”. Media History, pp. 1-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2016.1230009

NEVALAINEN, T. (2002). “English Newsletters in the 17th Century”. In: FISCHER, A.; TOTTIE, G. and LEHMANN, H. M. (eds.). Text Types and Corpora. Studies in Honour of Udo Fries. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, pp. 67-76.

OLIVARI, M. (2014). Avisos, pasquines y rumores. Madrid: Cátedra.

OLIVEIRA TEIXEIRA, P. (2013). Os sistemas jornalísticos europeus no século XVII e a génese do jornalismo – Uma comparação entre Portugal, Espanha e França. [PhD Dissertation]. Porto: Universidade Fernando Pessoa.

PERSICO, P. (1620). Del segretario. Venice: Damian Denaro.

ROSPOCHER, M. (2012). Beyond the Public Sphere. Opinions, Publics, Spaces in Early Modern Europe. Bologna; Berlin: Il Mulino; Duncker & Humblot.

SOUSA, J. (2009). Print Journalism in Early Modern Portugal. Porto: Media XXI.

SOUSA, J.; PINTO, M.; SILVA, G. (2007). Génese do Jornalismo Lusófono e as Relações de Manuel Severim de Faria (1626 - 1628). Porto: Universidade Fernando Pessoa.

Author Biography

Javier Díaz Noci, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Full Professor. Communication Department.

Published

27-06-2017

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.