Reporting Flashcards
Who did Churchill report for
The Unionist, Daily Chronicle and the Morning Post
What was Churchill’s stance
Critical of the army but NOT anti-war
Thought that criticising the army would lead to change
Served in the war, captured by the Boers during phase 1
Was friendly with Buller but still wrote brutally honest reports
What Act led to the mass literacy
1870 Forster Education Act under the Gladstone government. Led to a mass readership eager for reports of the war. This meant competition between papers and therefore embellishment and sensationalism
Impact of mass literacy
Cheaper and less elitist newspapers emerged. e.g. The Daily Mail, founded in 1896 cost one halfpenny
How many British newspaper correspondents were operating in South Africa by 1900
58
Who was Edgar Wallace
the Daily Mail’s leading war correspondent. A-list correspondent, his name generated sales
Who was Lady Sarah Wilson
Churchill’s aunt. Reports published in the Daily Mail. Focused on and sensationalised Baden Powell, making him into the national hero for saving Mafeking. Pro war
Who was John Atkinson Hobson
Correspondent for the Manchester Guardian (anti war). Became increasingly popular as the war develops
What was John Atkinson Hobson’s stance
Sympathised with the Boers, focused on revealing the causes for the war.
Believed that the mine owners and Cecil Rhodes wanted control of the Transvaal and were manipulating the British to fight the Boers to maximise profits.
Condemned the war.
‘Press made war’
Who was Emily Hobhouse
Travelled to South Africa in December 1900. First to report on the concentration camps in June 1901, which widely circulated in the press and anti-government pamphlets. Wrote for the Manchester Guardian. ‘That Bloody Woman’-Kitchener
What was found in Hobhouse’s report
287 per 1000 per year died (children)
Government impact of Hobhouse’s report
Sent the Ladies’ Commission headed by Millicent Fawcett to investigate and improve the conditions of the camps
Lloyd George accused the Gov of carrying out a ‘policy of extermination’
Public impact of Hobhouse’s report
Exaggerated figures: 287/1000 became 400/1000 children dying per year
Pro gov papers claimed that the high death toll was the Boers’ fault for their lack of trust in the British.
Who was C.P. Scott
Manchester Guardian editor. Argued that the war was unnecessary and not in Britain’s interests. One of the leaders for the South African Conciliation Committee, a key anti-war movement
Argued that the war should be conducted in a ‘civilised’ manner instead of total war.
Opposed the Boer war as a Lancashire MP, lost his seat in the 1900 Khaki Election
Kenneth O. Morgan’s opinion
the media reporting of the Boer war transformed from the reporting of events to a jumble of fiction and fact, legend, symbolism and stereotype that acquired an embarrassing half-life of its own
