Newspapers as a source of information?

[Felix C]

I was looking at  britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk and wonder how accurate or otherwise are wartime newspapers? I notice for early war they are quite revealing. Do not know if that extended beyond early 1915.

 

The above link currently has a 30% off coupon for yearly access. wondering if it is worth it in terms of personal observations. 

[ss002d6252]

Most of the 'letters from the front' sort of items stop in mid to late 1915. I've generally found them to be relatively accurate sources.

 

I would recommend looking in to a find my past subscription if you need service records etc. as they include the British newspaper archives in the subscription.

Edited 16 January , 2018 by ss002d6252

[stiletto_33853]

I think it depends on the paper and reporter. There are some really wild accounts of the war out there, some accurate and a lot far less accurate. In comparison to Craig I have found some of the letters from the front grossly exaggerated, wether this was the actual letter or journalists poetic licence I cannot comment on.

Regarding casualties in local newspapers, sorry I check and check and check due to huge errors. See the attached for just one example. Enlisted as 2472 in the London Irish, commissioned into the 8th Essex Regiment, went overseas with the 9th Rifle Brigade and died of wounds on 18/11/17. Address vary greatly from his papers etc.

 

Andy

[kenf48]

On 16/01/2018 at 16:32, Felix C said:

I was looking at  britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk and wonder how accurate or otherwise are wartime newspapers? I notice for early war they are quite revealing. Do not know if that extended beyond early 1915.

 

The above link currently has a 30% off coupon for yearly access. wondering if it is worth it in terms of personal observations. 

 

Newspapers were not only heavily censored under the terms of the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) but journalists and editors also practised self-censorship.  There was very little criticism of the war, which was largely supported by the press.  Industrial disputes were played down and words like 'shirkers' and derogatory descriptions of the enemy were commonplace. While it's generally accepted the Germans committed war crimes in Belgium the description of these in the press were greatly inflated.  Stories had to be submitted to the Press Bureau and early in the war reporters were banned from reporting from the frontline, e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zs9bwmn.  A google search on censorship in WW1 offers many more examples.

 

That said the newspapers are a great source for enlistment, casualties and the general enthusiasm for the war.  They are often the only place where you can find information on Local Tribunals and they were of course the way the War Office communicated with the local population.  While clearly some caution is needed in accepting 'letters from the front' some can be quite touching, for example the excitement and happiness of soldiers sailing in the Mediterranean en route to the Dardanelles.

 

Personally I can spend hours reading them, but as Craig says FMP Pro is a better deal.  I enquired when I took out my subscription and was advised that the digitised newspapers will usually appear on the BNA site first, but will then be added to FMP so there is little difference in content.  You should also be aware that it is an ongoing project and coverage in the area you are interested in may be sparse for now.  You can usually access the BNA for free at your local library so it's always a good idea to spend a few hours there to get a taste before shelling out for a year's subscription.

 

Ken

 

[Ed ROBINSON]

I have had a bit of luck occasional trawling through the newspapers on find my past with a couple of medal groups that I was researching.These had no surviving records.  One article on a wounded soldier in Gallipoli could possibly explain why he was went from RS to Cameronians. Two other soldiers came up as POW with articles stating that they were alive and POW then 1919 returning home. The problem I found was the search engine recognizing names on the scanned newspapers so there was a lot of sifting!  

[Felix C]

Thanks everyone. I did the free tour and noticed that by 1918, in my area of interest, eyewitness/participant accounts were provided but without much detail as to place, time, vessels involved, etc. leading me to wonder if they were actual or fictional. A German newspaper writer of the era, Lothar Persius, lamented the German penchant for exaggeration and relied on British newspaper accounts for veracity. Perhaps he was fooled by well crafted propaganda.  

Edited 19 January , 2018 by Felix C

[Derek Black]

The early stages of the war seem to have the best coverage, it's surprising what was printed at times.

 

A notable one i've seen from November 1914,

"Driver David Small, a Dundee police reservist with the R.F.A. at the front, states in a postcard dated November 8 to a friend in Dundee - "This is not war; it is murder. The people at home have no idea of it."

Derek.

[Felix C]

I imagine the mass killing in the land war would incur heavy censorship early on. My interest are things naval, particularly the fringes of the effort, little ships both merchant and naval vs submarines and so find eyewitness accounts useful. These are very open and detailed to about mid-1915. As mentioned above still present late war and concerns over ship sinkings is present and detail is missing in the eyewitness accounts which is too bad from my point of view and understandable in terms of denying information to the Germans. 

Edited 19 January , 2018 by Felix C

[HarryBrook]

The Times newspaper archive is also searchable online with access on a home computer using a library card membership number to log in. If you are not already familiar with this service enquire at your local library to see if the facility is available in your area. It is a good source particularly for such as officer obituaries, casualty lists, despatches from war correspondents, and much more.

[ss002d6252]

It's all about taking it in the reading, "We were heavily shelled, Smith was killed, and we spent the day in the trenches" is different to "Smith bravely ran across no-man's land and was killed trying to steal a pickelhaube from their trenches". I've mainly looked at the DLI and I found them in the majority to be well balanced and verifiable, that may of course not always be true. Part of the problem may come from the fact that many of the 'letters from the front' were from regular contributors so if one had a propensity to exaggerate is will skew their letters. I do find that many of the more 'outrageous' reports seem to be propaganda rather than actual events.

Craig