Megan and Immie explored fake news in our historic newspaper collection (as part of Turning the Page, a project exploring how historic newspapers and archives can help us better understand the modern information landscape) and they used their research to create digital learning resources for 11-15-year-olds.

Here Megan and Immie write about what they discovered on their journeys through our historic newspapers and how their experience as interns at the Institution has inspired them to pursue careers in heritage and archives.

Immie Pethick

During my time as an intern, working on the project with Megan, I have learnt so much about the Institution, its members and staff, and the wider heritage sector. At first, creating digital resources for 11-15-year-olds was a little daunting, as trends have moved faster than I could keep up with. However, the Institution’s newspaper archives quickly showed us that Victorian advertising has a surprising amount in common with the content that our target audience encounters every day on social media, TV, and the news. We were easily inspired by the prolific and highly visual adverts for remedies and cures from the 1830s-1890s and the opportunity to handle such sources is what made this internship so special. I was particularly amazed by how familiar the appeals to authority, personal testimonies, undisclosed adverts, and false claims were, often even claiming to miraculously restore grey hairs or cure fatigue as today’s products do.

For our activity pack “Cure or Con?”, I really enjoyed disguising a modern ad for an avocado hair mask amongst some from the historic collection, which Sonia (DEI Librarian – ed.) was not able to distinguish! I found focusing on the techniques and visual elements of these Victorian adverts incredibly engaging as it helped bring to life the daily interests and needs of those who read them and relied on them for information. This glimpse into the lives of those mentioned and targeted by the papers inspired me to design a play-through game for the project, where you can choose a character who has to navigate their way through fake news about emigration to Australia or persuasive calls to purchase electric hairbrushes. Transforming the fascinating content of the papers into something deliverable and (hopefully) engaging was another highlight for me as I love sharing my enthusiasm for history with others, and I hope people enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it!

Learning about the work and roles of the library staff has been invaluable and inspired my ambition to pursue a career in heritage and archives. It was also lovely to share our work with curious members of the public during tours, and I learnt so much about the value of interpretation and how to communicate in heritage and visitor experience. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have worked in such a beautiful, historic building with such a supportive and knowledgeable team – I cannot thank Sonia and everyone enough for all their time and advice!

Megan Wakeford

My two-week internship at the DEI has been a hugely informative and insightful experience. Imogen and I were given the initial task of combing through Victorian newspapers which was a very exciting opportunity, as being able to feel and visualise the collection in person is miles better than simply reading it online. Some of my favourite articles and advertisements from within these newspapers were the promotions of emigration to countries such as Australia, Canada, North America, and China. Having found these hugely interesting, I began to further research the Single Female Migrant Scheme, which gave over one hundred-thousand single British women a free, one-way ticket to Australia. This scheme was introduced as both a way to address the gender imbalance within the emigrating population, and also to attempt to end Australia’s association with criminals and convicts. This is quickly growing into a topic I am very interested in, and I will definitely be researching such cases of emigration further. I hopefully will find and follow a woman’s journey from Exeter to Australia!

Another aspect of the internship that I really enjoyed was the creation of our digital material for the 11-15-year-old audiences. Disguising Victorian products (specifically, the very intriguing ‘electric hairbrush’) within modern adverts was a fun task I had the opportunity to create. I also created a comparative task between a Victorian news article and a script from a TikTok video, to encourage recognition of and discussion about the harmfulness of undisclosed advertising. The creating of such tasks has been a particularly fulfilling experience for myself, as I feel very strongly about the accessibility of heritage and culture for all. Producing material which combines archival work and current trends, and hopefully encouraging the younger generation to engage with the Institution’s collections further, is therefore something I am very proud of.

Finally, engaging with the public on the guided tours was an experience I am very grateful for. Being able to articulate what Imogen and I were working on to a receptive audience was not only challenging but also great fun. To see people’s interest in the research and content creation was definitely a confidence boost that we were doing something right! I would like to finish by saying a huge thank you to Sonia, and everyone else at the Institution, for being so kind, welcoming, and willing to answer any questions. Similarly, a big thank you to everyone behind the scenes who made this internship possible; I am immensely grateful that I had the opportunity to complete this experience, and I will take much of the information I have learnt into my future career.

Find out more about the University of Exeter’s Pathways to Arts, Culture and Heritage programme.