In this blog, we hear from two Year 10 students who joined us for work experience placements in July: Henry Rook, from Colyton Grammar School, and Wajih Chowdhury, from St. James School. Henry and Wajih carried out some research into our historic newspaper collections, in line with our groundbreaking ‘Turning the Page’ project.

Henry

After spending some time researching the idea of misinformation in the nineteenth-century press, Henry chose an article to analyse in more depth. He was particularly drawn to a Western Times report on British successes in the Crimean War, and produced this short write-up of his thoughts:

This article, “The War,” is about the successes of the Allies during the Crimean War but also serves as a warning of misinformation surrounding the subject.

I chose this article to write on as it is a key example of how false information is spread during wartime – a topic that is still relevant to this day. It was published in The Western Times, in Exeter, on October 7th 1854, and its purpose was to inform the public of the Allies’ successes in the Crimean War, whilst acting as a warning against misinformation.

While not directly spreading ‘fake news,’ this article does heavily emphasise the successes against Russia during this period, creating the sense that this would be an easy war that the Allies would be almost predetermined to win. In the article, it is mentioned that “it’s approaching fall was almost certain,” creating a moral high ground for the Allies and presenting the idea that they were spiritually better than their enemies. It is also stated that the allied armies reached the Crimea in, “so brief a period that the thing was held to be impossible”, the emphasis on the difficulty of this achievement presents the idea to the readers that the allied armies were especially skilled or gifted and would thus face no challenge.

During the 19th century, several terms were used instead of ‘Fake news’. In this article, it uses ‘False news’ and ‘False statements,’ however other terms included ‘False reports or ‘Libel’. In the 1800s, false news could be punished with large fines and a permanent ban from printing news. The reason why false news has to be punished are the drastic effects that it can bring. For example, in 1898, a US Navy ship sank in Cuba. This was blamed by several newspapers on Spain and several detailed illustrations made by them convinced lots of readers that Spain was guilty of sinking the ship, thus drastically decreasing US relations with Spain, and fostering a view of them as the enemy forming. Soon after, the Spanish-American war broke out, somewhat as a result of this ‘fake news’.

I find that this news article reminds me a lot of modern media and the press coverage. On social media, anyone can post anything so lots of misinformation, either purposeful or accidental, can be found and believed by thousands. If this gets popular enough (regardless of accuracy) various news sites can pick up on this and post it as fact.

 

Wajih

After looking at some examples of misinformation in our Victorian newspapers, Wajih used the British Newpaper Archive to identify a host of other ‘fake news’ articles, including reports of ghost sightings, coverage of the Jack the Ripper murders, and pieces on the Australian Gold Rush. He was particularly interested in adverts for patent medicines, and shared his thoughts with us:

What is your chosen article about, and why did you choose it?
The article is an advertisement for Holloway’s Pills, published in Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, Saturday 21 January 1860. The advertisement claims the pills cure so many things it would be silly to state them all here. Included in the list of things the pills are able to cure are: asthma, jaundice, scrofula (a form of tuberculosis), tumours (lumps in the body), worms of any kind and weakness from whatever cause etc. I chose this article because it was a clear example of fake news. The article was written to persuade readers to buy Holloway’s Pills as they can apparently cure almost anything under the sun. But the range of ailments that the pills supposedly cured was too good to be true.

How is it spreading misinformation or ‘fake news’?
The advert is spreading misinformation (otherwise known as ‘fake news’) as it is simply not possible for Holloway’s Pills to cure the amount of things that it says it does. Listed in the ailments the pills can cure is “weakness from whatever cause”, which is much too vague to be true.

Misleading language from the advertisement includes the aforementioned false claim that the pills can cure “weakness from whatever cause”, when actually, Holloway’s Pills were just a powerful laxative. So they could not cure asthma, or anything that a laxative couldn’t cure. There are many other examples of the advertisement influencing the reader. For example, the pills are marketed in the advertisement as “a boon to the sick” and “the best remedy known in the world”. As we have gone over earlier, Holloway’s Pills are a glorified laxative, so the claims here are simply false.

What was the punishment for printing or spreading ‘fake news’ in the nineteenth century? Were there any other consequences?
In the 19th century, “fake news” was often referred to as a “hoax” or a “humbug”. The use of the word “hoax” is still commonly used today. The punishment for printing or spreading fake news depended on who was affected by said fake news. If the fake news affected the reputation of a random person, the perpetrator could be sued, imprisoned, fined or be made to apologise to the individual. If the fake news affected the government, the perpetrator could be heavily fined, imprisoned with hard labour or be made to do up to 14 years of penal transportation to, for example, Australia, which could very well result in their death.

Other consequences for printing or spreading fake news included mass terror. This was seen during the widespread fear of “Jack The Ripper”. Fake news of the murderer included fake messages supposedly sent by him that drove the public into turmoil.

Does the article remind you of modern misinformation which you have encountered?
The article reminds me of advertisements on sites like TikTok where people are paid to try to get their viewers to buy products that don’t do what they actually say they do. For example, I have seen many ads for an app called Medly which was advertised as an app that could boost your GCSE grades. However, after some research, I discovered it was a scam. The AI in the app was dysfunctional and almost always wrong, and the marking system in the app gave drastically different marks to the same essay if it was submitted more than once.

Looking at these historic newspapers has made me think differently about modern instances of misinformation. It has shown me that fake news has been around for longer than I thought, and has been effective for longer than I thought as well.