A Note about Names
Introduction
Chapter One: Japan Meets the Press
Chapter Two: Lionel James and Stanley Washburn
Chapter Three: Jack London
Chapter Four: John Fox Jr
Chapter Five: Richard Harding Davis
Chapter Six: Luigi Barzini
Chapter Seven: Photographers and Illustrators
Chapter Eight: Hector Fuller
Chapter Nine: With the Russians
Chapter Ten: Conclusion
Bibliography
Michael S. Sweeney is professor in the E.W. Scripps School of
Journalism at Ohio University.
Natascha Toft Roelsgaard is doctoral student in the E.W. Scripps
School of Journalism at Ohio University.
In Journalism and the Russo-Japanese War, Sweeney and Roelsgaard
seek to present a clear description of the role of the press during
the Russo-Japenese War and the impact that conflict had on the
future of journalism during military combat. This book makes a very
engaging and important argument that clearly helps the reader to
better understand the nature of the modern media and some of the
important events that have influenced its development. Overall, the
authors do a good job in presenting the various issues that
journalist faced in gaining access in order to report on the
war.
*Journalism History*
For a war that's not much talked about these days, the 1904-05
Russo-Japanese War was pivotal not just for its antagonists but for
the entire world. It launched victorious Japan, the first Asian
power to defeat a European one in the modern era, on its
destructive path toward imperial expansion, which eventually
morphed into World War II. For the Russian Empire, soundly trounced
in battle after battle, defeat marked the end of its military
aspirations in the Far East and helped trigger the 1905 Revolution,
which led to the 1917 Revolution and all that followed.Journalism
scholars Michael S. Sweeney and Natascha Toft Roelsgaard argue that
it also triggered another key historical development in helping to
shape the rise of modern forms of propaganda and censorship,
particularly as practised in wartime.In their superbly researched
study Journalism and the Russo-Japanese War, they argue that
Japan's then-unprecedented treatment of western war correspondents
helped establish a template which has persisted around the world to
greater or lesser degrees to this day....Sweeney and Roelsgaard
offer a fascinating, engaging and erudite study of this process,
shining an enthralling and thought-provoking light on an
often-forgotten conflict, the reporters who covered it, and the
impact that war had on shaping the journalism we know today.
*Popmatters*
This study analyzes how Western journalists navigated the
challenges of covering the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, a bloody
conflict which is rarely explored in other war journalism
histories. Michael S. Sweeney and Natascha Toft Roelsgaard make a
convincing argument that the Japanese government created a template
for censorship and public opinion manipulation that shaped
press–military relations in wars that followed. This is an
important book for any reader interested in the history of how the
media have covered international military conflicts and how
governments try to control wartime information.
*Dale E. Zacher, St. Cloud State University*
This meticulously researched study on correspondents covering the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 is highly significant. For the
first time in warfare, Japan placed restraints on the press—written
regulations for correspondents, press pools, military liaisons
accompanying reporters, and strict censorship—that are still used
around the globe today as military leaders have realized that by
controlling the press, they can control the narrative. And as the
authors importantly demonstrate, such control can obscure the
truth. This study employs good, old-fashioned storytelling that
makes for a great read and is a welcome change from much that comes
out of higher education. As such, this book deserves high
readership.
*Patrick Washburn, Ohio University*
In Journalism and the Russo-Japanese War: The End of the Golden Age
of Combat Correspondence, Michael S. Sweeney and Natascha Toft
Roelsgaard give us a rare gift: a beautifully written study that
describes a major turning point which most readers will find
astonishing. The Russo-Japanese War permanently ended open access
for war correspondents and ushered in a time of regulations,
restrictions, minders, and censorship. If the authors would have
merely explored the changes in journalism, it would have been an
important book. But Sweeney and Toft Roelsgaard also give us a
series of fascinating tales of how literary and journalistic greats
like Jack London, John Fox Jr. and Richard Harding Davis stepped
into and were challenged by this brave new world of press control.
This book is a gem.
*David Z. Mindich, Temple University*
This study revolutionizes the history of war correspondence by
placing the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 as the birthplace of
press policies that shaped what ‘truths’ the public would consume
about the century of horrific wars to follow. The authors’ riveting
accounts of reporters—ranging from Jack London to Hector Fuller,
and scaffolded on scholarship that spans three continents—will
change the way you look at today’s news media.
*Linda J. Lumsden, University of Arizona*
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