News in the north : newspapers and other print news media in the seventeenth-century Baltic Sea region

This thesis presents an investigation of printed news media published in the coastal regions of the Baltic Sea during the seventeenth century, including Sweden, Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Prussia, Livonia and Estonia. The range of media explored encompasses official declarations and placards issued by municipal and state authorities, incidental pamphlets and broadsheets printed to celebrate or report upon a specific event; and, in particular, weekly newspapers, a new medium that emerged and spread across the region during this period. Throughout, this thesis offers a comparative study of printed news, through an examination of news production, and the manner in which events were reported on. In doing so, this thesis provides a comprehensive account of the development of the printed news industry across the Baltic region in a critical era of conflict and state formation; demonstrates the vital role played by authorities in the dissemination of printed news on Europe’s northern periphery; and establishes the key characteristics that both united and divided the respective news outputs of the Baltic polities. Emerging from this study is a news culture whose constituent industries were distinctly Baltic in their focus, and shared sources, interests and similar printing practices during times of peace. Geopolitical conflicts were felt keenly, however, and in times of war (all too frequent in the seventeenth century) these industries at once became far more Baltic in their focus, yet more distinct from one another in their reporting. This study seeks to make an important contribution to our understanding of early modern news and print culture in a region on Europe’s northern periphery, as well the ways in which seventeenth-century news reporting was shaped by cultural and geopolitical dynamics between different states.