first-century journalist?

During Palm Sunday's homily, our reverend asked us to pick a person who was part of the Holy Week scene and follow that person throughout Holy Week - try our best to put ourselves in that person's shoes. It wasn't hard for me to get on board, because I had considered what it might be like to be someone involved in Jesus' life and his death. Not sure why, but my first thoughts aren't toward the major players - Jesus, Peter, the other disciples, etc. - at least not the most popular ones. I've often wondered what it was like to be Judas Iscariot, Pilot, Thomas (mainly in the days after the resurrection) or the soldier whose ear was cut off by one of the 12 then healed by Jesus. And while I might pick one of those characters at some point, this year, I decided to go with what I know.
I don't know much about the spreading of the news back in the first century, other than most of it was done by word of mouth. Obviously, people wrote, and it would appear by reading the gospels that people kept track of the things Jesus said.
At this point, I'm torn between trying to imagine myself as a "news" person in the first century would have been in that particular culture and time, or to try to imagine myself as a time traveler who was just sat down, for lack of a better phrase in first-century Jerusalem during Holy Week.
I soon decided, as hard as it might be, to try my best to put myself in the position of someone actually there. I can't really put myself in the situation of a time traveler, because I know too much about all that has happened since then, and I operate within the structure of 20th-21st century journalism and all its philosophies, ethics, etc.
At this point, I'll say that I doubt Rev. Martha ever intended for me to make it this hard. But it's just my way, I guess.
With what little information I have at this point about how news was spread during Jesus' lifetime and whether there were people whose purpose was to gather news and post it in a central location in the city or share it orally, I'll have to do more research and make my best guess at what it would have been like. I look forward to learning more about life in the first century. Included in the information I'd like to find out is how much influence the government and/or religious leaders had on news that was spread. It's obvious people couldn't just go around saying they were the savior of humanity, the Messiah, etc., so people probably weren't as free overall to say what they wanted as we are here today. Knowing more about this would be one key in imagining the perspective of someone whose purpose it was to gather and report events during Jesus' lifetime.
Though I have more thoughts running through my head right now, like how I can't help but wonder how I would have covered the events surrounding Jesus had there been journalists then — what it might have been like on Palm Sunday as Jesus rode into town, who I might have interviewed, and whether I would have actually believed Jesus was the Messiah — I'll save those for a later blog.