The printing revolution bridged the medieval and modern worlds with enormous force, effect, and consequences (as Francis Bacon said in 1620). Beginning in Mainz, Germany around 1454, printing technology spread quickly over Europe and played a central role in the great sweep of events— the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the political, industrial, and scientific revolutions. Europeans also innovated in photography, telegraphy, broadcasting, satellites and digital media.
General histories of European media
- “The rise of mass media in Europe,” is part of the European Union’s Century of Technology exhibit, 2021.
- Rodrigo Zamith, “Journalism in Europe,” is from the International Journalism Handbook, Amherst, U. Massachusetts, 2022.
- Media Landscapes is a project of the European Journalism Centre (EJC) in partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Individual country profiles are noted in the national histories below.
National histories
- Media landscapes: Austria (EJC) The media landscape is characterized by two dominating groups: the public service broadcaster ORF on the one hand, being the uncontested market leader in television, radio and online; and the by far largest newspaper Kronenzeitung, reaching 31 percent of the Austrian population, on the other hand.
Belarus
The Baltics — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
The Balkans — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Slovenia, Serbia.
Denmark
France Georgia
- Media guide to Germany (BBC 2023)
- History of German journalism (W)
- Frank Bösch. Mass Media and Historical Change: Germany in International Perspective, 1400 to the Present. New York: Berghahn, 2015.
- Eighty years of television in Germany, Goethe Institut, 2015
- Cory Ross, Media and the Making of Modern Germany, Oxford U. Press, 2008.
- Media landscapes: Greece (EJC)
- Italy media guide (BBC) 2023
- Fausto Colombo, Media and communication in Italy, Department of Communication and Performing Arts at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, 2019
- The Portuguese media landscape is plural and diverse according to the EJC.
- The first newspaper in Portugal was the Gazeta da Restauração, published in Lisbon in 1641. It was a crucial propaganda tool during the Restoration War with Castile.
- Another important newspaper was the Gazeta de Lisboa (1715 – 1820).
- Media landscapes: Russia (EJC)
- History of Russian journalism (W)
- List of journalists killed in Russia (W)
- Media landscapes: Serbia (EJC)
- Media landscapes: Sweden (EJC)
Turkey