Journalists often claim that they write the first draft of history, but few historians examine the press in detail when preparing later drafts. This book demonstrates the value of popular newspapers as a historical source by using them to explore the attitudes and identities of inter-war Britain, and in particular the reshaping of femininity and masculinity. It provides a fresh insight into a period of great significance in the making of twentieth century gender identities, when women and men were coming to terms with the upheavals of the Great War, the arrival of democracy, and rapid social change. The book also deepens our understanding of the development of the modern media by showing how newspaper editors, in the fierce competition for readers, developed a template for the popular press that is still influential today.

Popular newspapers played a vital role in shaping British politics, society and culture in the twentieth century. This book provides a concise and accessible historical overview of the rise of the tabloid format and examines how the national press reported the major stories of the period, from World Wars and general elections to sex scandals and celebrity gossip. It considers the appeal and influence of the most successful titles, such as the &ltI>Daily Mail</I>, the &ltI>Daily Mirror</I>, the &ltI>Daily Express </I>and the &ltI>Sun</I>, and explores the emergence of the key elements of the modern popular newspaper, such as editorial campaigns, women's pages, advice columns, and pin-ups. Using a wealth of examples from across the century, the authors explain how tabloids provided an important forum for the discussion of social identities such as class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity, and how they scrutinised public figures with increasing intensity. In the wake of recent controversies about tabloid practices, this timely book provides the historical context to enable a proper assessment of how the popular press helped to define twentieth-century Britain.

This book explores how print journalism was a powerful and persistent influence on public attitudes to, and memories of, the First World War in a range of participant nations, including Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, the United States and Australia. With contributions from an international group of history, journalism and literary studies scholars, the book identifies and analyses five distinct roles played by the print media: producing and narrating histories of the war or its constituent episodes; serialising and reviewing memoirs or fictional accounts written by participants; reporting and framing the rituals and ceremonies of local and national commemoration; providing a platform for various war-related advocacy groups or campaigns, from veterans' associations to early Civil Rights movements; and using the war as a lens through which to interpret future conflicts. This innovative collection demonstrates the significance of journalism in shaping the public understanding of the First World War after 1918, and shows how the representations and narratives of the conflict reflected the political and social changes of the post-war decades. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Studies.

This book explores how print journalism was a powerful and persistent influence on public attitudes to, and memories of, the First World War in a range of participant nations, including Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, the United States and Australia. With contributions from an international group of history, journalism and literary studies scholars, the book identifies and analyses five distinct roles played by the print media: producing and narrating histories of the war or its constituent episodes; serialising and reviewing memoirs or fictional accounts written by participants; reporting and framing the rituals and ceremonies of local and national commemoration; providing a platform for various war-related advocacy groups or campaigns, from veterans' associations to early Civil Rights movements; and using the war as a lens through which to interpret future conflicts. This innovative collection demonstrates the significance of journalism in shaping the public understanding of the First World War after 1918, and shows how the representations and narratives of the conflict reflected the political and social changes of the post-war decades. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Studies.

Family Newspapers? provides the first detailed historical study of modern popular press coverage of sex and private life, from the start of the mass newspaper reading boom in 1918 to the triumph of the Sun's sexualized journalism in 1978, when circulation overtook that of its rival, the Daily Mirror.
In this period, newspapers were at the heart of British popular culture, and Fleet Street's preoccupation with sex meant that the press was a hugely significant source of knowledge and imagery about sexual behavior, personal relationships, and moral codes. Focusing on changing ideas of what sexual content was deemed "fit to print," Adrian Bingham reveals how editors negotiated the tension between exploiting public curiosity about sex and ensuring that their journalism remained within the bounds of acceptability for a "family newspaper." The study challenges established interpretations of social change by drawing attention to the ways in which the press opened up the public discussion of sexuality before the 'permissiveness' of the 1960s.
Exploring the spectacular diversity of the press's sexual content--from advice columns to pin-ups, from court reports to celebrity revelations--Bingham offers a rich and thought-provoking investigation of a media form that has done much to shape the character of modern Britain.

Offers a definitive history of the British and Irish Press from 1900-2017 Captures the cross-regional and transnational dimension of press history in twentieth-century and at the start of twenty first-century Britain and Ireland Offers unique and important reassessments of twentieth-century and contemporary British and Irish press and periodical media within social, cultural, technological, economic and historical contexts Provides a timeline of significant events for cross-reference as well as an extensive bibliography for further research At various points over the last 400 years, key political, economic and social processes, have worked to hinder or promote the expansion and dissemination of information across Britain and Ireland via newspapers and periodicals. In a contemporary era characterized by debate on the limits of devolution and the potential of independence we need to assess the roles played by newspapers and periodicals in enabling national and regional identities to emerge, cohere and diversify over time. How can we best identify the most significant of these processes? What were the critical flashpoints in their development? How have they marked the place of the press in civic society? What are the consequences in considering these within the general history of the British and Irish press? This proposed volume in a three volume series will address these matters, offering a definitive account of newspaper and periodical press activity across Britain and Ireland between 1900 and 2017, and addressing questions related to four key research interests: general social/political history; newspaper and periodical history; cultural history; technological history. A further aim is to situate such discussions within the larger framework of communication and media history.