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An Art Deco tour of London – part 1

Posted by Katherine on June 6, 2017June 6, 2017 in 20th Century, Local

Inspired by my recent obsession with watching old episodes of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, set in the 1930s, I decided to take a self-guided tour of some of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in central London. The first thing…

Cultural memory of Second World War images: Research survey launch

Posted by Katherine on March 23, 2017March 23, 2017 in 20th Century, Research

Today I am launching a research survey to investigate how people remember and think about images from the Second World War. The survey contains five images and asks you to comment on your opinions and memories relating to each image….

‘What have I got to lose even if Germany wins?’ Apathy on the British Home Front

Posted by Katherine on February 16, 2017February 16, 2017 in 20th Century, Research

I spent some time at the National Archives recently, looking for administrative documents relating to the conception, design and distribution of the home front campaigns that I will be investigating in my fieldwork. I came across a document detailing a…

Photographs, Motorbikes and the Ministry of Information: an interview with Anne Olivier Bell

Posted by Katherine on November 22, 2016 in 20th Century, Research

This article was originally published on the MoI Digital website on 21 November 2016. In the summer of 2016, Anne Olivier Bell celebrated her 100th birthday. She has enjoyed a varied career including working at the Ministry of Information, the…

Use and misuse of digital cultural examples: Pokémon Go and the Rijksmuseum Teenagers

Posted by Katherine on July 28, 2016 in 20th Century, 21st Century, Conferences, Digital, Research

Yesterday I attended the opening plenary session of the annual conference of the International Association of Media and Communication Research at the University of Leicester. I heard excellent speeches first from Professor Graham Murdock, Professor of Culture and Economy at Loughborough…

The Keep, where the Mass Observation archive is stored

Memories of the Second World War from the Mass Observation archive

Posted by Katherine on June 28, 2016February 12, 2019 in 20th Century, Research

A few months ago I spent over 80 hours in The Keep, an archive near Brighton, reading the written thoughts and memories of 235 people on the subject of the Second World War. This material was collected by the Mass Observation Project, an initiative that originating during the war but was revived in 1981 to record the thoughts and experiences of people in the UK on a variety of topics. The project recruits volunteers to make up a national writing panel. They are sent ‘directives’ which ask them questions about certain topics and then they write responses and send them back in. These anonymous texts make up a fantastic resource for researchers as they cover so many topics including current events.

My research focuses on how people remember the Second World War today, and in particular how they remember materials created by the Ministry of Information during the war. This Mass Observation material has been a really useful starting point for me, as I have been able to read people’s accounts of their own memories and thought processes and pick out references they make to the Ministry of Information. I will be presenting the results of this research at this year’s International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference at the University of Leicester.

But beyond the content analysis that I conducted, which focuses closely on the core aims of my research project, there are some more general observations I’d like to explore here. Reading this material has been an amazing experience. It is so fascinating to spend time reading the individual thoughts and feelings of ordinary people, often presented in stream-of-consciousness fashion. Many of the responses flow so naturally, as the writer’s thoughts turn from one specific memory to wider topics and emotions rise and fall and spur them on to the next topic. Some of the stories people share are so moving and others really funny – reading these genuinely did make me laugh and cry!

Here are just a few things that really struck me while working on the Mass Observation archive:

Second World War infographics

Posted by Katherine on April 3, 2016 in 20th Century

Recently we’ve seen a bit of a craze for infographics: they are appearing in dedicated coffee table books on every subject, you now find them frequently in newspapers, magazines and online articles and all over social media. It is likely that social media has had some influence on this, since infographics make it easier for complex and often dull information to be shared within an eye-catching 140 characters with just a couple of clicks. Additionally it is now much easier to produce infographics with the availability of easy-to-use free software.

However, people have always wanted to share information with the public and visual images have always been a successful method of attracting attention. While that word ‘infographic’ only began to appear in the second half of the 20th century, they have existed in media under other names as soon as printing technology allowed them to.

One period when these kinds of images came into their own was during the Second World War, when graphic design techniques were flourishing and information needed to be controlled and disseminated quickly and successfully.

How Britain learned to deal with rumour

Posted by Katherine on January 6, 2016 in 20th Century

The spread of rumour and gossip has always been a topic of concern for governments in need of public cohesion and obedience. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the British government displayed exactly this concern and took action…

Pick of the posters at the Imperial War Museum

Posted by Katherine on January 1, 2016January 1, 2016 in 20th Century, Digital, Exhibitions

Posters provide striking and familiar visuals that illustrate, decorate and inform the public about the Second World War. The Imperial War Museum displays these posters in some of its exhibits as you might expect, but they also appear as reproductions…

Soldiers in silhouette: visual shorthand for the First World War

Posted by Katherine on October 25, 2015 in 20th Century, Books, Digital, Television

Does this image look familiar to you? If you’re in the UK you have probably seen it, or images like it, hundreds of times before, particularly last year. And it’s likely that this simple silhouette instantly leads your mind to…

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Recent posts

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    March 6, 2019
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  • Tracking online uses of Second World War posters
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