Municipal matters : local government reporting and news values in England’s provincial press, 1900-1950

O'Reilly, CA

Abstract

This study examines local government reporting in the English provincial press from 1900 to
1950. It has two main findings – firstly, that the press moved from verbatim council reports
in the early part of the century to selective news stories that were designed to maximise news
values and commercial revenues. City council meeting reports were re-shaped, re-focused
and re-formulated to resemble news stories, often featuring on the front pages. They
conformed to journalistic news values such as drama, conflict and personalities and provide
evidence of a move to a more news-driven approach to local government reporting.
The paper also demonstrates the often-invisible commercial links between some elected
representatives and the local press, on whose boards of management they sat. Overall, it
provides a challenge to the conventional wisdom that the provincial press interest in
municipal issues declined in the twentieth century.

Citation

O'Reilly, C. (2022). Municipal matters : local government reporting and news values in England’s provincial press, 1900-1950. Media History, https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2022.2051461

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 17, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Mar 18, 2022
• Publication Date: Mar 18, 2022
• Deposit Date: Feb 22, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 18, 2022
• Journal: Media History
• Print ISSN: 1368-8804
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9729
• Publisher: Routledge
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2022.2051461
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2022.2051461
• Related Public URLs: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cmeh20/current