News became a commodity with the birth of the commercial periodical. What constituted news, how it was presented and how people responded to it changed markedly. This work demonstrates how commercial news left its permanent imprint not only on what we think about, but how we think.

The News Revolution in England: Cultural Dynamics of Daily Information is the first book to analyze the essential feature of periodical media, which is their periodicity. Having to sell the next issue as well as the present one changes the relation between authors and readers - or customers - and subtly shapes the way that everything is reported, whether politics, the arts and science, or social issues. So there are certain biases that are implicit in the dynamics of news production or commodified information, quite apart from the intentions of journalists. The News Revolution in England looks at the history of journalism from an entirely different angle - the effect of the medium rather than the intentions of the journalists. It will be of interest to historians of England, journalism, and news, along with anyone interested in how the media shapes our world and how we come to relate to it.

[referring both to Sommerville and to Raymond/ The Invention of the Newspaper, Clarendon Press] Although fundamental issues about readership, production methods and early attitudes to 'the news' may, because the necessary evidence does not survive in sufficient quantities, never be satisfactorily answered, studies such as these can nevertheless be helpful in pointing towards a fuller understanding of such problems.