Newspaper Coverage of the #SpringhillBump

To compile information for my project, I decided to rely mainly on newspaper accounts for the specific information that I would need to real-time tweet the events that took place in Springhill, Nova Scotia on October 23rd 1958 and in the days and weeks that followed.  As a result of my research and through course readings I have come across other courses, each with its own unique flavour and take on the events.  It is also important to note here in this blog post that the majority of blog posts were inspired by my reading of several newspapers over the course of my research rather than by ideas for separate blog posts at the outset of this project.  Various newspaper articles inspired me to delve deeper in terms of certain themes that I knew I might not be able to address as fully as I would like through Twitter.

I read approximately ten days worth of newspaper articles from the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen, the Washington Post, the New York Times and of course, the Halifax Chronicle Herald.  From the range of locations represented in the list above it was obvious from the outset that the levels of coverage would vary as would attention to detail.  Based on my physical location, Ottawa, I ended up reading the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the paper closest in location to the disaster, last.  This provided me with really interesting insight as to how the coverage varied among the newspapers I consulted.  I also came to trust the Halifax Chronicle Herald more than the other newspapers due to its more extensive coverage which included photos.

The Halifax Chronicle Herald also provided more personal links to the disaster as it was, and still is, the provincial paper of Nova Scotia.  Links to other residents of the province, more personal coverage of the disaster and more photos than the four other newspapers combined convinced me that in this case quantity and quality resided with the Halifax paper rather than with the others.

I suspected that the American newspaper coverage would be very different from that in Canada.  Interestingly enough, the story of the #SpringhillBump was surprisingly central to their overall news coverage compared to my low expectations.  In addition, there was more Canadian news overall than I expected to find in the American papers.  I'm keen to know if any of my readers might have some insight into this?  My presumption is that seeing as other forms of media communication were not as prevalent as the newspaper, it had to include 'all' the news.

Overall I'm very happy with my decision to rely mainly on newspaper accounts for my tweets.  For a previous project I had only consulted one newspaper which at the time I saw as simplifying the data.  I The five newspapers consulted for this project all covered the disaster to varying degrees and it is interesting to be able to compare the stories of the disaster in each.  If you ever have a chance to read about an historical event in several different newspapers or other media sources it's a very interesting foray into perspective on historical events.

Best,

Rebecca