British Newsreels at War, 1939-1945
Lead Research Organisation:
Durham University
Department Name: History
Abstract
This project will:
-examine the complexities of the production environment, and, in particular, the exigencies of resource and the demands of the market economy. The student will map the relationships between newsreels companies, considering how newsreels were produced and how they operated within a consumer market. Work with the Tyneside's own records will offer an opportunity to study these dynamics at local level, revealing the commercial decisions taken by individual cinemas.
-unpack notions of news censorship, analysing interactions between official and unofficial news, and the tensions between privately-owned newsreels companies, official propaganda agents, and local cinema owners (distinct groups that are unhelpfully conflated in existing studies of war communications).
-through the sensitive application of communication and film theory, consider the aesthetics of the newsreel, forms and modes of reportage and how these changed over time, and problems of recirculation - news footage was a transnational phenomenon, distributed (in full or as de-contextualised footage) among belligerents with multiple intents and outcomes.
-examine intersections between information, news and entertainment, reflecting on popular consumption and reception of newsreels during the performance and after. The Tyneside's own history and connections to those who experienced the newsreel first hand will add depth to analysis of national reactions.
-examine the complexities of the production environment, and, in particular, the exigencies of resource and the demands of the market economy. The student will map the relationships between newsreels companies, considering how newsreels were produced and how they operated within a consumer market. Work with the Tyneside's own records will offer an opportunity to study these dynamics at local level, revealing the commercial decisions taken by individual cinemas.
-unpack notions of news censorship, analysing interactions between official and unofficial news, and the tensions between privately-owned newsreels companies, official propaganda agents, and local cinema owners (distinct groups that are unhelpfully conflated in existing studies of war communications).
-through the sensitive application of communication and film theory, consider the aesthetics of the newsreel, forms and modes of reportage and how these changed over time, and problems of recirculation - news footage was a transnational phenomenon, distributed (in full or as de-contextualised footage) among belligerents with multiple intents and outcomes.
-examine intersections between information, news and entertainment, reflecting on popular consumption and reception of newsreels during the performance and after. The Tyneside's own history and connections to those who experienced the newsreel first hand will add depth to analysis of national reactions.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Joanne Fox (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Grace Stephenson (Student) |