The Ideology of Objectivity: Constructs of Language in the Popular Press of Early Twentieth-Century Britain

Abstract

Relying on archival research, particular events occurring during the First World War will be singled out that generated articles in the popular press, and acts of close reading will be performed to see which journalistic styles and techniques are being used to relate the details of wartime events. I will also explore how imperialism is featured, either as an implicit or an explicit construct, when journalists write articles concerning global affairs. This focus on the thematic representation of war and the epistemological supposition of an imperialist order in newspapers will show the ways in which a nationalist discourse is configured. Newspaper reports are ideally thought of as a transparent and impartial medium. However, in studying the links between the mass production and circulation of popular newspapers, the dramatic increase of a literate public, and the state of the British imperialist project in the early twentieth century, journalism’s so-called transparent discourse can be fundamentally questioned.