Pre Reformation Research Paper

There are not many direct parallels between the Pre-Reformation Church and the field of journalism. The strongest relation between the two would be their purpose is to share the news. In the Church, members share the good news of Christ.“And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation,” Mark 16:15. In Journalism, writers share the news of their community, their country and the world. The practice of recording news events and publishing documents pertaining those details to a community of people did not begin until the 1600’s in Germany. The German-language Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien was published in 1605 and is often credited as the first official newspaper. Political pamphleteering did not begin until the 1700’s in England. Since the reformation began in 1517, much of the pre-reformation church has no direct connection to public journalists. In terms of commonality however, journalism and the reformation are both products of similar historical occurrences. Generally speaking both the reformation and citizen journalism are social constructs that are an attempt to dismantle tyranny and protect liberty. The pre-reformation church had a top-down organizational style with a small amount of people at the top holding a majority of the power

This gave the citizens the ability share information about politics and their community without being restricted by the government. Therefore the actions of the government, to an extent could not be hidden. The reformation followed a similar path. Because Martin Luther believed a portion of the churches practices were corrupt, He established a new set of theories of how to more effectively and more spiritually practice Christianity without the oppressive guiding hand of the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman