Collection of Information and News by Scandinavians in Ancient Times and in the Middle Ages

For citation: Novitskaya I.Ya. (2019) Sbor skandinavami informatsii i novostey v Drevnosti i v Srednie veka [Collection of Information and News by Scandinavians in Ancient Times and in the Middle Ages]. Mediaskop3. (in Russian). Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/2568

DOI: 10.30547/mediascope.3.2019.7

©Irina Ya. Novitskaya

PhD in Philology, Junior Researcher at the Laboratory for Studies of Foreign Journalism, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), novija@yandex.ru

Abstract

The relevance of this article is due to the miniscule number of studies on proto-journalism in Scandinavia and Sweden and the complete absence of them in our country. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to study the collection and dissemination of information in ancient times and in the Middle Ages, up to the early modern period. The objectives of the study are as follows: to consistently consider and analyze the development of proto-journalism at different historical stages: in ancient times, in Scandinavia of Viking times and in the Middle Ages. The article considers how the information space of Ancient Scandinavia was being created and what role the Roman Empire played in its creation. In this paper, the contribution of Scandinavian skalds as collectors and distributors of relevant information is investigated. The paper follows backward how some of the oral information was gradually replaced by written information and how both types of information coexisted in the historical arena. Ancient Scandinavia, located on the outskirts of the Roman Empire, not only borrowed a lot from Rome, but also undertook with the help of the Vikings to fill the information vacuum that formed after the fall of the Empire. The Scandinavian skalds, who lived in the times of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, were already the distributors not only of oral but also of written information noted down with the Latin alphabet, which became an important means of communication. Moreover, in the Middle Ages, oral and written information was distributed not only by individuals, but also by entire information and educational, cultural and religious centers, such as universities, churches and monasteries.

Keywords: ancient news, Vikings, skalds, medieval information, handwritten news publications

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