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Good Campers: The History of Australian War Reporting
Author(s) -
Anderson Fay
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00729.x
Subject(s) - legend , historiography , mythology , scholarship , power (physics) , history , newspaper , spanish civil war , media studies , political science , psychology , law , classics , sociology , art history , physics , quantum mechanics
When the Chief of British Intelligence told Australia’s First Official War Correspondent, C.E.W Bean in October 1914 that war reporters were a ‘dying profession’, Bean recorded in his diary that on the contrary, he thought it was the beginning of a new era. Bean proved prescient. Since 1863 Australia has had over 750 journalists, photographers and cinematographers covering international conflicts. Despite this tradition, the history of Australian conflict reporting has been neglected by historians. This article will provide an overview of the Australian historiography and the corresponding scholarship in the US and UK. It will also consider seminal issues such as censorship, the mythology and self‐mythology surrounding war reporting, media power and the Anzac legend.