One early journalistic platform that has thankfully gone uncopied for centuries is the news ballad. Ending stories with a hey-nonny-nonny instead of a sign-off is not about to win over key demographics, nor do I think a Reuters-by-rhyme service is in the offing, but in the sixteenth century the popular medium for news was song. And William Elderton rivalled Perez Hilton as dispenser of trash to the masses. So what exactly was a news ballad? Here’s an example of Elderton’s work from 1579:

A newe Ballade, declaryng the daungerous shootyng of the Gunne at the Courte.

To the tune of Sicke and sicke

Weepe, weepe, still I weepe, and shall do till I die:
To thinke upon the Gunne was shot, at Court so dangerouslie.

The seventeen day of July last, as evening toward night,
Our noble queen Elizabeth, took barge for her delight:
And bad the watermen to row, her pleasure she might take
About the river to and fro, as much as they could make.
Weep, weep, still I weep, and shall do till I die,
To think upon the gun was shot at Court so dangerously.

You get the gist. It goes on for another twenty-three verses, to tell of how someone who’d been out hunting and accidentally bagged an oarsman in the Queen’s barge was arrested, brought to the scaffold and then pardoned at the last minute. Note the shameless editorialising and hysterical crying, Elderton’s motto certainly wasn’t We sing – You decide.

I’d be interested to know if anyone can come up with any more recent examples of song being used to actually deliver the news…