Journalism and the Russo-Japanese War: The End of the Golden Age of Combat Correspondence

This book examines the journalistic coverage and challenges during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, what some have called World War Zero. The authors explore how Japan delayed and regulated correspondents so they could do no harm to the nation's ambitions at home or abroad and implemented methods of shaping the news. They argue Japan helped to shape the modern world of journalism by creating and packaging "truth."

Table of Contents:
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

About the Author :
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.

Review :
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.