Fake news is probably as old as news itself. Certainly, as far as the British Library is concerned, it goes back to 1614 at least, when the good people of Horsham in Sussex were told of the dragon in their area that was causing great annoyance. Whether those who produced this newsbook believed what they were telling to be "true and wonderfull", who can say? 

True and Wonderfull. A discourse relating a strange and monstrous serpent (or dragon) lately discovered, and yet living in Sussex, 1614 newsbook

Today, the subject of fake news is hot news, coming out of the 2016 US presidential election, but with deeper roots in the clash between traditional news providers and the search engines and social media sites through which so many now discover the news that they want to see. Fake news ranges from deliberate falsity, to news you disagree with, to satire. This special edition of the St Pancras Intelligencer rounds up some of what is being said and done about fake news today.

Definitions

Fake news: what is it, and how can we tackle it? (Digital Social Innovation) - A handy summary from Toby Baker of NESTA

Fake news. It's complicated (First Draft News) - Claire Wardle attempts to explain and categorise the many types of 'fake news'

Lists

Fake News Watch - Want to know what is a fake site, a satire site, or a clickbait site? Fake News Watch attempts to list them (mostly if not all American). Other lists of fake news sites have been produced by ThoughtCo, Snopes, The Independent, and of course Wikipedia

The Ultimate 'Fake News' List (Infowars) - But just to show that one person's truth is another person's outrageous lie, here's an American far right show's listing of the fakery it sees in the mainstream media

Fact checking

CrossCheck - A fact-checking site from First Draft News, formed through a coalition of 37 publishers, mostly from France and Britain, including the BBC, Channel 4 News, Le Monde, BuzzFeed, and Agence France-Presse. Digiday's report European newsrooms are forming a united front against fake news gives the background. 

The Independent is launching a section called In Fact to debunk fake news (The Drum) - The Independent is launching a new section called 'In Fact' in April which will 'debunk spurious stories'.  Other fact checking sites that have popped up include FactCheck, Politifact and Fake News Checker.

Fact Check blog - Channel 4 News has produced a fact check blog following a season of programmes on fake news (including a one-off comedy show). Awkwardly the news programme made a bad slip on the day of the Westminster attack of 22 March, naming the wrong person as the perpetrator, as Richard Smallbrook covers in Westminster attack: Channel 4 learn hard lessons about the fog of breaking news (The Conversation)

Bellingcat Wants Your Help to Debunk Fake News (Vice) - The fact-checking citizen journalism network and scourge of Russia news outlets Bellingcat has launched a Kickstarter campaign to expand its open source investigation platform

RT separates facts from fakes with new online project (RT) - Not to be outdone, RT (Russia Today) has launched its own fact checking service in the battle against fake news, Fakecheck

Facebook and Google

Building Global Community (Facebook) - Mark Zuckerberg has issued a manifesto, which in part addresses the topic of the distribution of fake news (Facebook having been the target of many of the complaints made):

We've made progress fighting hoaxes the way we fight spam, but we have more work to do. We are proceeding carefully because there is not always a clear line between hoaxes, satire and opinion. In a free society, it's important that people have the power to share their opinion, even if others think they're wrong. Our approach will focus less on banning misinformation, and more on surfacing additional perspectives and information, including that fact checkers dispute an item's accuracy.

How Mark Zuckerberg could really fix journalism (Columbia Journalism Review) - Emily Bell responds to Zuckerberg, suggesting that market intervention in America is the answer:

America needs a radical new market intervention similar to that made by the UK Government in 1922 when it issued a Royal Charter and established the BBC ... If, instead of scrapping over news initiatives, the four or five leading technology companies could donate $1 billion in endowment each for a new type of engine for independent journalism, it would be more significant a contribution than a thousand scattered initiatives put together.

Facebook has started to flag fake news stories (Recode) - Meanwhile, Facebook has introduced a 'disputed' tag

Google purges nearly 200 websites in fake news crackdown (Mashable) - Google has been shutting down fake news sites from its advertising platform 

Google's fake news Snippets (BBC) - Rory Cellan-Jones's sneak preview of the Google Home speaker showed how it could spout false news in response to spoken enquiries. Google is now adjusting the algorithms...

Google and Facebook Can’t Just Make Fake News Disappear (Back Channel) - Danah Boyd thinks the problem with the interpretation of news lies with us

Real fake news

How fake news becoming a popular, trending topic (CBS News) - CBS News looks into actual fake news stories created by con artists

Inside the Macedonian fake-news complex (Wired) - More on the production of actual fake news from the unlikely source of the town of Veles in Macedonia

US spoof news site The Real Fake News

Legislation

'Fake news' inquiry (Parliament.uk) - The Culture, Sport and Media Committee is conducting an inquiry into fake news and its impact

What to know about Germany’s fake-news crackdown (Digiday) - Germany has proposed a law to fine social networks up to €50 million if they fail to remove harmful fake news or defamatory content

More action

World wide web creator Tim Berners-Lee targets fake news (BBC) - Sir Tim has set out a five-year strategy amid concerns he has about how the web is being used

Announcing New Research: "A Field Guide to Fake News" (First Draft News) - First Draft News have also announced a project that aims "to catalyze collaborations between leading digital media researchers, data journalists and civil society groups in order to map the issue and phenomenon of fake news in US and European politics"

Updates from the fake-news world (NiemanLab) - US journalism studies site NiemanLab provides useful round-ups of the efforts being made to tackle fake news. The latest update, Is it still fake news if it makes you feel good?, has interesting points to make about the sharing of positive but made-up news

Historical

Lessons from the fake news pandemic of 1942 (Politco) - There's nothing new under the sun - Joshua Zeitz reports on a race-related fake news story that circulated in the American south in 1942

Trump’s “fake news” playbook has roots in a 180-year-old hoax (Quartz) - Corinne Purtill takes the issue back further to 1835, and the widespread report on life having been discovered on the Moon

The real story of 'fake news' (Merriam Webster) - The American dictionary traces use of the term 'fake news' back to the 1890s - but 'false news' goes back to the 16th century

Opinion

Good news in an era of fake news: the public is becoming wiser about how the media works (The Conversation) - It's an ill wind ... James Rodgers points out that all of this is greatly improving the public's understanding of how the media works

The term ‘fake news’ isn’t just annoying, it’s a danger to democracy (The Independent) - Sean O'Grady is angry

Fake News : The Greatest Lies Ever Told (TruePublica) - So where are the UK's homegrown fake news sites? In a contentious thought piece, Graham Venbergen argues that "In Britain at least, fake news websites have failed to get a grip in the political arena. This is because traditional British news outlets, are already highly accomplished at stretching the truth to its limits and yet still get away with it"

Britain Has No Fake News Industry Because Our Partisan Newspapers Already Do That Job (Buzzfeed) - Jim Waterson similarly argues that very limited appetite for completely fake news in British politics, thanks to its highly partisan newspapers

The Choose-Your-Own-News Adventure (New York Times) - Jim Rutenberg illustrates how we can escape reality by pursuing news worlds that match our expectations. But isn't this how news has always worked?

And finally

'Fake news' to be delightful and fun (Daily Mash) - Let's leave the last word to our favourite UK spoof news site:

The Institute for Studies has shown that real news is bad enough already, and therefore all fake news from now on must be unbelievably delightful. Professor Henry Brubaker said: “If the ‘news’ on social media is just whatever b------- anyone shares, then instead of ‘Muslims in council-backed halal Easter outrage’ why not ‘Puppies discover limitless cold fusion energy source’?

 

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk

The latest addition to the electronic newspaper resources available to British Library readers is one that we're particularly pleased to have secured, the Rand Daily Mail. Published from 1902 to 1985, the South African daily newspaper was renowned for its anti-Apartheid stance, with notable coverage of the Sharpeville massacre, the Soweto uprising and the death of Steve Biko. Closed down in controversial circumstances in 1985, the entire newspaper is being digitised and made available by research materials service Readex. Happily the British Library is making the entire archive available for remote access to anyone with a Reader's Pass.

The Rand Daily Mail's renowned African Affairs Reporter, Benjamin Pogrund, wrote recently on the Readex blog about the significance of the newspaper and its archive:

The Rand Daily Mail was ahead of its time in reporting and exposing apartheid evils and in opposing oppressive government. This is why it was shut down. 

The Mail was always a contradictory newspaper: although owned by mining interests from its start in 1902, it was known for siding with the underdog – which, for the first two-thirds of its existence, meant the white underdog. 

That changed in 1957 when Laurence Gandar—a quiet, reserved man—became editor. Little was expected from him except professional journalism. But he proved to have radical ideas and compassion, and he had an inner core of steel. Gandar dissected apartheid with deep and brilliant writing that electrified the country. 

Gandar took his pioneering into the news columns, assembling a staff of journalists whose political views stretched from left to right but who shared a commitment to fair and honest reporting, investigation and robust comment. The newspaper became the pacesetter in illuminating dark corners of South Africa and gave hope to blacks by pointing to a new direction for the country. It transformed itself, the rest of the Press and deeply influenced the political scene.  

The board of (white) directors soon turned against Gandar and in time got rid of him. His successor, Raymond Louw, made his own singular contribution: he invested the Mail with a tough news sense while retaining its policy strength. 

 Integral to this was that the Mail turned the newspaper adage, “When in doubt, leave out,” on its head. Instead, as the authoritarian government’s restrictions grew on free publication, the newspaper sought to get as much into the open as possible. It wasn't always consistent; but right up to the end, even when tight laws and controls were throttling the Press, the Mail ensured that no-one would ever be able to say that they had not known about the ravages of Afrikaner Nationalist rule.  

The Mail was admired by most South Africans of all colors and was honored by its international peers. The reason for respect was why it was loathed by many, but by no means all, within the white community, and they finally prevailed in getting the commercial owners to close it in 1985.  

It's exciting to know that with digitization the Rand Daily Mail's treasure store of information about crucial years in the old South Africa will now be more widely available.

Pressures which led to the newspaper's board seeking a change of policy to reach out to more to a prosperous white audience ultimately proved damaging to sales and led to the newspaper's closure. The current owners, Times Media Group, decided in 2014 to resurrect the newspaper as an online archive and, through Readex, sought out the best materials, including the incomplete run of the title held by the British Library. 

We are delighted that not only is the electronic archive now available in our Reading Rooms, but is available to British Library Reader pass holders via our Remote Resources service. It therefore joins the small but significant number of electronic newspaper resources to which we subscribe that we can offer to Library users wherever they might be, so long as they have Reader's Pass (information on obtaining such a Pass is here). Other titles available in this way include:

• African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 - provides online access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This unique collection features papers from more than 35 states - including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles.
• Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans 1639-1800 - contains virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America during the 17th and 18th centuries.
• Early American Newspapers, Series I - reproductions of hundreds of historic newspapers, providing more than one million pages as fully text-searchable facsimile images. 
• Latin American Newspapers Series 1, 1805-1922 - part of Readex's World Newspaper Archive, this database provides access to more than 35 fully searchable Latin American newspapers including key titles from Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Peru.
• World Newspaper Archive: African Newspapers, 1800-1922 - part of Readex's World Newspaper Archive. African Newspapers includes over 30 fully searchable African newspapers including key publications from Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

We therefore have a particular strong remote access offering for researchers of African news. The Rand Daily Mail online archive is not complete as yet - currently it runs 1937-1985, but eventually it will contain the full run of 1902-1985.

There are exciting changes happening in how we use newspapers to study the past. After decades in which the use of newspapers in research meant leafing through volumes or scrolling through microfilms, digitisation made millions of newspapers more readily searchable and far more widely available. But now that digitisation that taken us to the next stage in development, which is using the data generated by the digitisation process to look at history on a grand scale. We are moving into the era of big data newspaper studies.

From the University of Bristol study: People in history. (A)  famous personalities by occupation using all extracted entities associated with a Wikipedia entry; (B)  the probability that a given reference to a person is to a male or a female person

Big data newspaper studies have come about through a combination of large-scale digital resources and a growth in analysis tools. Most will be aware of OCR (optical character recognition), the mechanism by which archival texts can be converted into machine-readable texts by converting what a computer sees as an image (i.e. the arrangement of letters on a page) and matches these to letters that it knows. It is an imperfect science, because OCR can struggle to work with older forms of types and deteriorating page originals, but levels of accuracy continue to improve as new OCR software is developed, and the results are generally satisfactory - that is, most of the time a researcher will find what they are looking for, if it is there to be found.

But added to this are software tools that can extract further sense from the raw data set that generated by OCR. The field of what is called Natural Language Processing, by which computer come to understand human text and speech, includes the extraction of keywords, or named entities, and the matching of these to controlled lists of terms (such as DBpedia), further mapped to geographic areas and time periods, which enables researchers to undertake controlled, thematic analysis of large historical datasets. Our archive of words yields patterns of behaviour with much to tell about our past selves.

This is the theme of a major project undertaken by the Intelligent Systems Laboratory at the university of Bristol, led by Professor Nello Cristianini. As described in their paper 'Content analysis of 150 years of British periodicals', the project worked on a corpus of newspapers digitised from the British Library's collection by family history company Findmypast for the British Newspaper Archive website. The figures involved are huge. The project analysed 28.6 billion words from 35.9 million articles contained in 120 UK regional newspapers over the period 1800-1950, which they calculate forms 14% or all regional newspapers published in the UK over the period.

The project then used this study to explore changes in culture and society, determined by changes in the language. It looks at changes in values, political interests, the rise of 'Britishness' as a concept, the spread of technological innovations, the adoption of new communications technologies (the telegraph, telephone, radio, television etc), changing discussion of the economy, and social changes such as mentions of men and women, the growth in human interest news and the rising importance of popular culture. It is the stuff of multi-volume histories of the past, boiled down to eye-catching graphs.

This does not mean that we thrown away those multi-volume histories, however, The researchers are at pains to point out that such data analysis is an inexact science, with many caveats needed to explain how the entities have been arrived at and with what degree of caution they should be treated. The data derived from such tools can only work where it is supported by traditional studies, to gain the richer understanding of what happened. The machines may have taken the natural language of humans and converted it into data, but the results need to be converted back into human language to offer real understanding.

So it is that some of the results of the project yield results that may seem obvious. We could have guessed beforehand that the newspaper archive would show an increase in discussion of popular culture subjects, that politicians are more likely to achieve notoriety within their lifetimes than scientists, or that there was a rise in coverage of the Labour Party from the 1920s onwards. But the analyses reinforce through data what we have previously inferred through study, while discoveries such as the term 'British' overtaking the term 'English' at the end of the 19th century, or the decline in terms associated with ''Victorian values - such as 'duty', 'courage' and 'endurance' - call for new studies to explore these things further.

The project is at pains to point out the importance of using newspaper archives. Previously we have had big data analyses of millions of historical books, most familiar through the Google Ngram Viewer. This has caused controversy among some scholars, because of the unevenness of coverage of topics in books, and the limitations of merely counting words and making them searchable again. Opening up newspaper archives for comparable analysis widens the amount of content available, arguably with greater reliability overall, and now with tools to make analysis that much more scientific. The use of controlled terms will also enable the analysis across different datasets - so, books and newspapers, but also other news forms, as subtitle extraction and speech-to-text technologies now start to make our television and radio archives available for similar and shared analytical studies. Our big data is only going to get bigger.

There are limitations to this use of newspaper archives. The quality of OCR varies not only according to the original newspaper, but according to the microfilm where this has been used instead of print. Digitisation is quicker and cheaper this way than digitising from print, but older microfilm can be photographically poor, leading to inferior OCR (though there are promising tools appearing for improving poor OCR). The British Newspaper Archive is made up mostly of UK regional newspapers, because the main nationals have often been digitised by their current owners and are available separately. How different was the discourse in newspapers based in London from those around the rest of the country? That has to be the subject of another major study.

One of the better jokes from the Victorian Meme Machine project

The British Library has been engaged in its own big data analyses of newspaper archives. BL Labs is an initiative designed to support and inspire the public use of the British Library’s digital collections and data in exciting and innovative ways. It has facilitated several studies of British historical topics through the digital newspaper archive. These include Bob Nicholson of Edge Hill University's study of jokes in Victorian newspapers, with the concept of the Victorian Meme Machine (automatically matching jokes to an archive of contemporary images); Katrina Navickas of the University of Hertfordshire's mapping of nineteenth century protest; and Hannah-Rose Murray of University of Nottingham's tracing of black abolitionists in 19th century Britain. A major user of our newspaper data is M.H. Beals of Loughborough University, who is researching how ideas travel across the historical news media, creating new insights through understanding newspaper archives as structured data.

Such projects are just the start. The availability of large-scale newspaper archives in digital form, and the data derived from such archives, enables us both to seek answers to traditional questions more quickly, and to start asking new kinds of questions. The latter is the great challenge that newspaper data offers. We need to come up with new questions, because the technology enables us to do so, and because it may question what we previously thought that we knew. As the data from their archives comes more readily available, and more easily usable by the non-data specialist, so we will find that we have only just started to read the newspapers. We are going to find that they have much more yet to tell us.

Links:

• All of the regional newspapers used in the University of Bristol project are available at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk (subscription site, free to use at British Library locations)
• The paper 'Content analysis of 150 years of British periodicals' is frreely available in PDF format from Proceedings of the Nattional Academy of Sciences of the United States (PNAS)
• Secondary data from the project, in the form of yearly n-grams and entities, is freely available to download from http://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/dobuvuu00mh51q773bo8ybkdz
• A book by Paul Gooding on the issues surrounding the digitisation and use of newspaper archives, Historic Newspapers in the Digital Age, is to be published shortly by Routledge

 

The incoming US president, Donald Trump, is rewriting the book on the political process. However, despite the apparent creation of policy via social media, the real impact Trump has made since the presidential election process began has been through the more traditional media, particularly television.  His statements made through Twitter have been picked up by newspapers, television and radio, and it is here that the seismic realignment of American political priorities is being digested and disseminated. Twitter has been used to ignite a media process. Social media remains for Donald Trump a means of being on TV, where his mass audience lies (Trump has 18.6m Twitter followers, but there are 114m television sets in the USA alone).

From the Sky News coverage of the US presidential election result, 09/11/2016

Trump's impact on television in Britain can be traced through the news and current affairs programmes recorded for the British Library's Broadcast News service. As well as recording regular television and radio news programmes each day from 22 UK and international channels, we have recorded numerous special programmes on Trump and the US election. On 8/9 November we recorded the election night programmes of BBC One, ITV1, Sky News, Al Jazeera English, CNN, RT (Russia Today), Channels 24 (Nigerian television) and CCTV (China). All of these can be found on our Explore catalogue with links to the playable programmes, which for copyright reasons can only be played on terminals at our London or Yorkshire sites. For ease of searching it is best, if you are onsite and using a British Library terminal, to go to the Broadcast News service itself (http://videoserver.bl.uk) and use the Advanced Search facility to select all recordings for 8/9 November 2016.

We also have many individual television programmes produced through 2016. of which the titles below are only a selection. They document not only the events of recent history, but the struggle that the often incredulous traditional media have had in trying to come to terms with the Trump phenomenon. The links are to our catalogue records, but again please note the programmes will only be playable on a British Library terminal. Descriptions in inverted commas are those provided for the programmes as part of the EPG (Electronic Programme Guide).

• The Mad World of Donald Trump (Channel 4, tx. 26/01/2016): "Matt Frei enters the colourful and mad world of presidential hopeful Donald Trump, whose meteoric political rise comes amid one of the most controversial political campaigns America's seen."
• Piers: The Trump Interview (ITV1, tx. 23/03/2016): "Piers Morgan's full, uncensored interview with controversial US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump."
• President Trump: Can He Really Win? (Channel 4, tx. 30/03/2016): "Donald Trump has emerged as the clear front runner for the Republican Presidential nomination. Matt Frei investigates whether 'the Donald' could make it to the White House."
• Republican Presidential Town Hall (CNN, tx. 30/03/2016): Anderson Cooper hosts a Republican Presidential Town Hall with Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Donald Trump.
• Listening Post (Al Jazeera English, tx. 23/04/2016): "Trump and Clinton win the New York Primaries but what part have the media played in their victories?"
• United States of Hate: Muslims Under Attack (BBC One, tx. 05/07/2016): "Examining America's recent upsurge in Islamophobia and the reasons it has come about."
• Panorama: Trump's Angry America (BBC One, tx. 18/07/2016): "Hilary Andersson visits the racially divided town of Bakersfield to meet Donald Trump supporters as well as those who fear Trump becoming president."
• Republican National Convention 2016 (BBC Parliament, tx. 22/07/2016): Recorded coverage of the 2016 Republican National Convention, from Thursday 21 July. Including speeches from Reince Priebus, Peter Thiel, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump.
• Republican National Convention 2016 (CNN, tx. 22/07/2016): Live coverage of Republican National Convention for 21 July 2016, including acceptance speech by Donald Trump.
• President Trump: Can He Really Win? (Channel 4, tx. 23/08/2016): "Matt Frei explores how the US presidential contest is shaping up to be one of the most brutal in living memory, and asks if Donald Trump can make it all the way to the White House."
• Trump vs Clinton Live (Channel 4, tx. 27/09/2016): "US Presidential Debate: Channel 4 presents live coverage of the first of three US presidential debates, as Donald Trump goes head to head with Hillary Clinton."
• Tonight: Trump's America - Will It Happen? (ITV1, tx. 06/10/2016): "Robert Moore explores why many Americans feel so angry ahead of one of the most bitterly-fought and divisive presidential campaigns in history."
• Clinton v Trump: The Second Debate (Sky News, tx. 10/10/2016): "We join Sky News for coverage of the second presidential debate of the 2016 US Election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump."
• Paxman on Trump v Clinton: Divided America (BBC One, tx. 17/10/2016): "Jeremy Paxman travels to Washington and beyond to understand how Americans came to face such unpopular choices in its candidates for the presidency."
• US Presidential Debate (BBC News, tx. 20/1/2016): "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump face each other in the final 2016 presidential debate at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas." 
• This World: Conspiracy Files - The Trump Dossier (BBC Two, tx. 03/11/2016): "Investigative documentary looking into how Donald Trump has used conspiracy theories to further his bid for the presidency."
• Trump's Unlikely Superfans (BBC One, tx. 07/11/2016): "Angela Scanlon meets with the passionate and unlikely people stumping for Donald Trump to find out why they support his controversial campaign."
• Rich Hall's Presidential Grudge Match (BBC Four, tx. 07/11/2016): "An examination of the sordid machinations involved in becoming US president."
• Newsnight: Trump's America - A Newsnight Special (BBC Two, tx. 11/11/2016): "With reporting from across the United States, Newsnight explores the ramifications of the election of Donald Trump as president."
• The World According to President Trump (Channel 4, tx. 12/11/2016): "What will a President Trump really do? Will he really ban all Muslims? Build a wall? Pal up to Putin? Smash Isis? Matt Frei speaks to the people who know."
• Panorama: Trump's New America (BBC One, tx. 14/11/2-16): "Hilary Andersson meets angry Americans on both sides of the electoral race who feel disillusioned and disenfranchised by the electoral process."
• Listening Post (Al Jazeera English, tx. 19/11/2016): "How the US media begins the process of 'normalising' Donald Trump"
• Frankie Boyle's American Autopsy (BBC Two, tx. 20/11/2016): "Frankie attempts to make sense of the US election through stand-up and debate."

We will of course continue to record the television news throughout 2017 and beyond. For discussion of the impact of Donald Trump's tweets on the news agenda, see What really happens when Donald Trump goes on a Twitter rampage (Quartz, 11/12/2016), If Trump Tweets It, Is It News? A Quandary for the News Media (New York Times, 29 November 2016), How Trump Took Over the Media By Fighting It (Politico, 5/11/2016), or Why the establishment was blindsided by Donald Trump (Washington Post, 28 October 2016).

Or you can check every Trump tweet, the deleted and the active, with telling categorisation, at the admirable Trump Twitter Archive.

 

There's nothing quite like a worldwide story such as the Olympic Games for showing how all news is relative. There is no absolute concept of what is news: it is always determined by the particular audience of which we are a part. The news tells us where we are, and who we are. Here are newspaper front pages from around the world for today, Tuesday 16 August 2016, each reporting on the Games from their particular perspective, just to prove the point:

 

 All images taken from I Wanted To See all of the News Today, an online art installation by Martin John Callanan which brings together fresh newspaper front pages from around the world each day. The section includes newspapers from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Fiji, Germany, Greece, Japan, Kuwait, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea,  UK, USA and Venezuela.

 

Newspapers may be in decline, but that isn't stopping publishers coming up with fresh ways in which to produce the news in print.Over the past two years we have seen four new 'national' newspapers appear in the UK: The National, The New Day, 24 - The North's National and The New European. Each presents a different twist on the idea of what a UK national newspaper means, targeting a different sector of the nation in ways that bring national divisions into sharp relief. Not all have managed to survive.

The National is a Scottish daily, produced by Newsquest as 32-page tabloid and sister paper to The Herald broadsheet. It was launched on 24 November 2014 in the wake of the Scottish referendum, with a strong pro-independence line. It was initially produced an a five-day trial basis, an experiment that was extended after strong sales in the first week. The original print run was 60,000 copies, but although the number has fallen to below 20,000 copies (plus around 2,500 digital subscribers), the newspaper has survived, moving from five to six issues a week in January 2015.

The New Day was launched by Trinity Mirror on 29 February 2016, as a daily title in a 40-page tabloid format. It was heralded as the first new British national daily newspaper since i in 2010 - depending on how you identify a 'national' title. It boldly chose to have no digital manifestation, its website being a mere holding page. Initially priced at 25p, this rose to 40p and then 50p. It was aimed at an audience that had given up on newspapers, which was always going to be a challenge. Fatefully the newspaper was given the slogan "Life is short, let’s live it well", because its life turned out to be short. A hoped-for circulation of 200,000 copies was never achieved, and after two months and sales having dropped to 30,000 copies the title closed on 6 May.

24 - the North's National was launched by the CN Group as a 40-page tabloid on 20 June 2016, priced at 40p. It billed itself as being a national newspaper with a "distinctly Northern perspective". Distributed across north west England and southern Scotland, targeting an area not reached by the free Metro newspaper, it aimed to rethink where the centre of national news should be. Much of its copy came from the Press Association. It turned out to have a shorter life than even The New Day, closing after just a month on 29 July 2016, having found sales to be disappointing and the challenge of "squeez[ing] into beside the big beasts of the daily market" too great.

The New European was launched on 8 July 2016 in the aftermath of the EU referendum result, published by the regional newspaper group Archant in an eye-catching Berliner format, a weekly title priced at £2. Remarkably, the newspaper was produced just nine days after the idea was first proposed. Aimed at "the 48%" who voted Remain, and distributed in those areas of the UK where the majority voted that way, the paper was announced as being a 'pop-up' title, to have just four editions initially, before the publishers would review the situation.  The title turned out to be a success, indeed profitable, with further editions now promised "on a rolling basis".

All four titles have been aimed at different sectors of the nation, with different ideas of what 'nation' actually means. They represent as much uncertainty over identity as they do uncertainty over newspaper publishing business models. Of course, few national titles have ever reached the entirety of the UK, strongly delineated as it is by region, nation and class, but these new titles suggest that the struggle for print newspapers today is as much about defining an audience as finding it. 

The two that have succeeded (so far)  have done so through strategies that limited risk by starting off with test publications. Each has been aimed at audiences impassioned by referendum results that did not go their way, and sustained by a belief that change may still yet happen. Ultimately though, The National and The New European have succeeded through having strong content. It is not enough simply to identify a supposedly neglected community - you need to give them something to read.

All four titles have been archived by the British Library - The New Day and 24 - The North's National in their entirety.

 

The most tumultuous British news story since the British Library began recording television and radio news programmes in 2010 has undoubtedly been the EU referendum. The result of the vote made on 23 June 2016 is still causing shockwaves, and has generated a compelling archive. It is hard to calculate just how many hours of broadcasting we have archived since the date of the referendum was announced on 20 February 2016 that relate to the subject, but it will be somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 hours of TV and radio. On June 24 alone, the day the result was announced, we recorded 135 hours. 

The archive  comprises regular and specialist news and current affairs programmes broadcast over February-June 2016, plus comedy programmes, broadcasts by the Vote Leave and Britain Stronger in Europe campaigns, interviews, live speeches, parliamentary debates, public debates and through-the-night coverage of the result of the vote. There are programmes from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky News, but also CNN, Al Jazeera English, RT (Russia Today), France 24, NHK World (Japan), CCTV (China), BBC national radio channels, LBC and more. In general the referendum saw the traditional news media providing the chief platform for the national discussion. There was considerable activity on the web and via social media, but print (often thought to be waning in influence at general elections) and particularly television were where the mass audience came for its information, and to see the arguments played out. 

Programmes on Broadcast News

The archive is available already at the British Library, and continues to be added to each day. Every programme recorded up to the end of June can be found via Explore, or on our Sound and Moving Image catalogue (SAMI), though the programmes themselves can only be played onsite, at either our St Pancras or Boston Spa locations. Researchers onsite may find it easier to explore the archive via the Broadcast News service, which offers word-searching for subtitled programmes and filtering by date, date range, channel or medium (TV and radio). If you are using Explore, you should search by a programme title or terms such as 'referendum', 'Brexit', 'EU' etc, and filter the results by Moving Image or Audio. Clicking on the Details tab of any record will give you the description plus the link to the playable programme (which will only play onsite).

Below is a list of some of the key special programmes broadcast (the list mostly does not include programmes such as Newsnight, Question Time, Peston on Sunday, The Andrew Marr Show, Murnaghan, Pienaar's Politics, Today and Daily Politics, which we record on a regular basis in any case). The descriptions mostly come from EPG (Electronic Programme Guide).

2016 EU Referendum - selected special programmes, February-June 2016

Channel	Title	Date	Description
BBC News	BBC News	20/02/2016	Prime minister announces date of referendum
BBC 1	BBC News at Ten	20/02/2016	Includes news that EU agreement has been made, triggering UK referendum
BBC Parliament	Live EU referendum statement	22/02/2016	Live coverage of the statement in the House of Commons by prime minister David Cameron on the deal reached with EU leaders on reforms to the terms of the UK's membership
BBC1	Panorama Special: In or Out - The EU Referendum	22/02/2016	How much do you know about the EU? Nick Robinson debates immigration, jobs and sovereignty.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum - George Osborne	23/03/2016	The speech by George Osborne in Bristol on the importance of staying in the EU alongside fellow cabinet ministers Liz Truss, Amber Rudd and Stephen Crabb, from Monday 18 April.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum - Gordon Brown	23/03/2016	The speech on the reasons for Britain to remain in the EU made by former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown at a conference on the economic consequences of "Brexit", from 21 April.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum - Michael Gove	23/03/2016	Recorded coverage of the speech by justice secretary Michael Gove on the case for leaving the European Union, from Tuesday 19 April.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum - Nigel Farage	23/03/2016	The GO movement rally in favour of leaving the EU with speeches from UKIP leader Nigel Farage and Conservative cabinet minister Chris Grayling, from Monday 18 April.
ITV	Tonight: is Britain Really full?	31/03/2016	Ranvir Singh travels to London, Lincolnshire, Lancashire and Greater Manchester to find out whether public perception of immigration is borne out by the facts.
BBC Parliament	Live House of Commons coverage	11/04/2016	Government statement on EU referendum leaflet
BBC2	Europe: Them or Us - part 1	12/04/2016	1/2. An Island Apart: Nick Robinson explores the troubled history of the UK's relationship with Europe.
BBC News	Victoria Derbyshire	14/04/2016	Includes Jeremy Corbyn speech on EU referendum
BBC Parliament	Alastair Darling EU Speech	18/04/2016	Recorded coverage of former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling making a speech setting out the economic argument for the UK to remain in the European Union, from Friday 15 April.
BBC Parliament	Boris Johnson EU Speech	18/04/2016	Recorded coverage of London mayor Boris Johnson making a speech at a Vote Leave event in Manchester calling on the UK to leave the European Union, from Friday 15 April.
BBC2	Newsnight	18/04/2016	Referendum special on the economy
BBC Parliament	Vote Leave Event	18/04/2016	Recorded coverage of Labour MP and Vote Leave Chair, Gisela Stuart, making a speech entitled The Risks of Staying in the European Union, from Wednesday 13 April.
BBC2	Europe: Them or Us - part 2	19/04/2016	2/2. Voice of the People: The troubled history of the UK's relationship with Europe. Episode two goes behind the closed doors of Whitehall and Brussels.
BBC News	HARDtalk	19/04/2016	The battle for Britain's future, in or out of the EU, will be settled in June. Stephen Sackur's guest is Tim Martin, founder of JD Wetherspoon. Could Brexit make economic sense?
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum - Boris Johnson	10/05/2016	Recorded coverage of the speech by Conservative MP and leave campaigner Boris Johnson on the 'liberal cosmopolitan' case for Britain leaving the European Union, from Monday 9 May
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum - David Cameron	10/05/2016	Recorded coverage of David Cameron's speech on the forthcoming EU referendum, warning that peace in Europe could be at risk if Britain votes to leave the EU. From Monday 9 May
BBC2	Newsnight	16/05/2016	An EU referendum special with Evan Davis
Channel 4	Channel 4 News	17/05/2016	Includes EU referendum debate with members of UK minority communities
BBC1	Paxman in Brussels: Who Really Rules Us?	19/05/2016	As the EU referendum debate approaches its climax, Jeremy Paxman takes viewers on a journey to the heart of Europe, meeting the movers, shakers and anonymous faces who run the EU.
Channel 4	Referendum Campaign Broadcast	23/05/2016	A referendum campaign broadcast by the Vote Leave campaign
Channel 4	Referendum Campaign Broadcast	24/05/2016	A referendum campaign broadcast by the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign
Channel 4	Boris v Dave: The Battle for Europe	25/05/2016	Michael Crick examines how the EU referendum campaign has become a personal battle between David Cameron and Boris Johnson; a battle that will define the future of the country
BBC1	How Should I Vote? The EU Debate	26/05/2016	Live from Glasgow, Victoria Derbyshire hosts a debate on the issues that matter to younger voters ahead of the June referendum on whether or not Britain should remain in the EU.
BBC Parliament	Business Views on EU Referendum Committee	27/05/2016	Recorded coverage of the Business, Innovation and Skills committee on the views of businesses on the EU referendum, from Tuesday 24 May.
BBC Parliament	EU Polls Debate	28/05/2016	Recorded coverage of an event with pollsters and commentators asking whether the EU referendum polls can be relied on. From Wednesday 25 May.
BBC Parliament	Scotland and the EU Referendum Committee	28/05/2016	The Scottish Affairs Committee's session on the impact of the EU referendum on Scotland, from Wednesday 25 May.
BBC Parliament	Speaker's EU Debate	28/05/2016	Recorded coverage of the House of Commons speaker hosting a debate on the UK's membership of the European Union. From Monday 23 May.
BBC1	Countryfile	29/05/2016	Snowdonia: John Craven races a hill runner to the summit of Snowdon and meets the volunteers protecting the area's ospreys. Includes David Cameron and Boris Johnson speaking on EU referendum and the countryside.
Channel 4	An Immigrant's Guide to Britain	30/05/2016	Comedian Henning Wehn and his gang of first-generation immigrants provide an irreverent guide to life in Britain. This episode explores caravans, rugby, the weather and more. (Ep1/3)
BBC 2	Britain & Europe: For Richer or Poorer?	31/05/2016	Laura Kuenssberg examines the economic costs and benefits of EU membership.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum - Chris Grayling	31/05/2016	Recorded coverage of Vote Leave campaigner Chris Grayling MP making a speech in London, from Tuesday 31 May.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum - Sajid Javid	31/05/2016	Recorded coverage of business secretary Sajid Javid taking part in a panel discussion for the Britain Stronger IN Europe campaign group, from Tuesday 31 May.
Channel 4	Referendum Campaign Broadcast	31/05/2016	A referendum campaign broadcast by the Vote Leave campaign.
Channel 4	Referendum Campaign Broadcast	01/06/2016	A referendum campaign broadcast by the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign.
Sky News	EU: In or Out?	02/06/2016	Adam Boulton presents build-up to the first big TV event of the EU referendum in which David Cameron will answer questions from Sky News's political editor and a live audience
Sky News	EU: In or Out?	03/06/2016	Adam Boulton presents build-up to the second big TV event of the EU Referendum in which 'Leave' campaigner Michael Gove will answer questions from Faisal Islam and a live studio audience.
BBC1	Countryfile	05/06/2016	Montrose: Matt Baker and Anita Rani are at the Montrose Basin in Scotland, while Tom Heap looks at the EU referendum and Britain's fisheries.
BBC Radio 5 Live	Pienaar's Politics	05/06/2016	John Pienaar is joined by the former deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, and energy minister Andrea Leadsom. He also speaks to a panel of young voters about the EU referendum.
Channel 4	An Immigrant's Guide to Britain	06/06/2016	Comedian Henning Wehn leads the irreverent guide to life in Britain. This episode explores work, dating, the British sense of humour, and breakfast in a can. (Ep2/3)
Channel 4	Channel 4 News	06/06/2016	Includes live youth debate on EU Referendum
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum Campaign: Jeremy Corbyn	06/06/2016	Recorded coverage of a referendum campaign event with Jeremy Corbyn MP in favour of the UK remaining in the European Union, from Thursday 2 June.
BBC1	The Andrew Neil Interviews: Leave or Remain?	06/06/2016	In this first programme Andrew speaks to the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn MP. Then BBC News.
BBC News	Victoria Derbyshire: The EU Debate	06/06/2016	Victoria Derbyshire hosts an EU referendum debate live from Manchester with an audience of 150 voters and senior politicians.
ITV	Cameron and Farage Live: The EU Referendum	07/06/2016	Julie Etchingham presents a live hour-long programme in which David Cameron and Nigel Farage will in turn answer questions from a studio audience in London.
BBC2	Jack Dee's Referendum Help Desk	07/06/2016	1/3. Jack Dee helps a live studio audience dispel their problems regarding the EU referendum. Jack's guests include Romesh Ranganathan and Katherine Ryan.
Channel 4	Power Monkeys	08/06/2016	New comedy spin-off from Ballot Monkeys with Jack Dee, Claire Skinner, Kevin McNally, Andy Nyman, Archie Panjabi and Amelia Bullmore following both sides of the EU referendum. (Ep1/6)
Channel 4	Referendum Campaign Broadcast	08/06/2016	A European referendum campaign broadcast from the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign. Featuring Stephen Hawking
BBC1	The Andrew Neil Interviews: Leave or Remain?	08/06/2016	Andrew Neil speaks to the chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne MP. Then BBC News.
Channel 4	Referendum Campaign Broadcast	09/06/2016	A European referendum campaign broadcast by the Vote Leave campaign.
ITV	The ITV Referendum Debate	09/06/2016	Two-hour live debate ahead of the most significant UK referendum in recent history. Three senior political figures from each side answer questions from members of the audience. Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Eagle and Amber Rudd speak for Remain; Boris Johnson, Gisela Stuart and Andrea Leadsom speak for Leave.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum Campaign - Blair and Major	10/06/2016	Recorded coverage of the EU referendum campaign event in Northern Ireland, with former prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair backing the UK to remain in the European Union.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum Campaign - Gove and Raab	10/06/2016	Recorded coverage of the EU referendum campaign event with Michael Gove and Dominic Raab on why the UK should leave the European Union, from Wednesday 8 June.
BBC1	The Andrew Neil Interviews: Leave or Remain?	10/06/2016	Andrew Neil talks to leading campaigners on both sides of the EU referendum debate. In this programme he speaks to Ukip leader, Nigel Farage MEP. Then BBC News.
Channel 4	The Last Leg	10/06/2016	The award-winning satirical comedy show returns. Hosted by Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe. The first guests are Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and Russell Crowe. (S8 Ep1/6)
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum Campaign - Stronger in Europe Event	11/06/2016	Recorded coverage of a Stronger in Europe referendum campaign event with speeches from David Cameron, Harriet Harman, Tim Farron and Natalie Bennett, from Monday 6 June.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum Campaign - Vote Leave Event	11/06/2016	Recorded coverage of a Vote Leave referendum campaign in Stratford-Upon-Avon, with speeches from Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Gisela Stuart and John Longworth, from Monday 6 June.
Al-Jazeera English	Listening Post	11/06/2016	As Britain's EU future hangs in the balance, is the media helping or hindering voters? Plus, the challenges of covering Australia's refugee policy.
BBC1	Better In or Out? A BBC Referendum Special	12/06/2016	Politicians and business leaders debate what London's future holds after the EU referendum.
Channel 4	An Immigrant's Guide to Britain	13/06/2016	The irreverent guide to life in Britain continues. Henning's laugh exasperates an etiquette expert, Obosei tries a pie in a tin, and Veronika investigates personal space. (Ep3/3)
Channel 4	Referendum Campaign Broadcast	13/06/2016	A European referendum campaign broadcast from the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign.
BBC2	Britain & Europe: The Immigration Question	14/06/2016	Mishal Husain investigates migration within the EU, including the impact of immigration on the UK as well as the advantages for Brits living abroad.
BBC2	Jack Dee's Referendum Help Desk	14/06/2016	2/3. Jack Dee helps a live studio audience dispel their problems regarding the EU referendum. Jack's guests include Romesh Ranganathan and Katherine Ryan.
BBC2	Referendum Campaign Broadcast	14/06/2016	Referendum campaign broadcast by the Vote Leave campaign.
Channel 4	Power Monkeys	15/06/2016	Topical satire. In the Unity Unit the PM is coming to visit and Ruby's making cheesecake, Oleg reminisces about Angela Merkel, and the Trump team attempt to woo women. (Ep2/6)
BBC1	Question Time EU Special: The Case for Leave	15/06/2016	Justice secretary Michael Gove MP answers questions on the case for leaving the EU.
BBC1	Referendum Broadcast	15/06/2016	Referendum campaign broadcast by the Stronger IN Europe campaign.
Channel 4	Eurotrash	17/06/2016	Antoine de Caunes and Jean Paul Gaultier present a new edition of the legendary show about the many, varied and occasionally alarming cultural delights enjoyed by our European cousins.
Channel 4	The Last Leg	17/06/2016	Hosts Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe are joined by US playwright and actor Jesse Eisenberg and Kunal Nayyar to take a fresh look at the week's events. (S8 Ep2/6)
BBC Radio 5 Live	Pienaar's Politics	19/06/2016	John Pienaar presents a special EU referendum edition of Pienaar's Politics. He speaks to politicians and pundits on boths sides, including David Miliband and Nigel Farage.
BBC1	Question Time EU Special: The Case for Remain	19/06/2016	An audience in Milton Keynes quizzes David Cameron on the case for remaining in the EU.
Sky News	EU: In or Out?	20/06/2016	Jeremy Corbyn - live television debate of the Referendum campaign, exclusive to Sky News.
BBC1	The Big EU Reality Check	20/06/2016	The Big EU Reality Check gets to the facts behind the claims in the EU referendum campaign.Then BBC News.
BBC1	EU Referendum: The Great Debate	21/06/2016	David Dimbleby, Mishal Husain and Emily Maitlis present the biggest debate of the EU referendum campaign live from the SSE Arena in Wembley, London.
LBC 97.3	Iain Dale	21/06/2016	Includes EU debate between Nigel Farage and Lord Heseltine
BBC2	Jack Dee's Referendum Help Desk	21/06/2016	3/3. Jack Dee helps a live studio audience dispel their problems regarding the EU referendum. Jack's guests include Katherine Ryan, Jeremy Hardy, Nina Wadia and Nish Kumar.
BBC R5L	Phil Williams	21/06/2016	Phil Williams presents reaction to the evening's debate on the EU referendum at Wembley Arena.
BBC News	The Great Debate Countdown	21/06/2016	A special programme building up to the start of the BBC's EU Referendum Great Debate - with behind the scenes access to the audience, the experts and the BBC's presenting team.
BBC Parliament	BBC Wales EU Referendum Debate	22/06/2016	On the eve of the EU referendum, leading figures from the two campaigns face questions from a studio audience in a debate presented by Bethan Rhys Roberts.
Sky News	EU: In or Out? Time to Decide	22/06/2016	Dermot Murnaghan hosts a special night of coverage in the hours before EU Referendum polls open, with reports and analysis from Sky News' Editors and leading contributors from the UK and abroad.
Channel 4	Europe: The Final Debate with Jeremy Paxman	22/06/2016	Jeremy Paxman hosts the final debate before the EU Referendum, with politicians, celebrities and figures from business, science, sport, the military and security services.
Channel 4	Power Monkeys	22/06/2016	There's one day left for the EU referendum camps to sway the waverers. In the Unity Unit, Sara is trying her best to manage conflict, while Jackie wants to be eaten by eagles. (Ep3/6)
BBC Radio 4	The Moral Maze	22/06/2016	The EU Referendum: Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Edward Stourton. With Mona Siddiqui, Matthew Taylor, Claire Fox and Giles Fraser.
LBC 97.3	Britain Decides	23/06/2016	Britain Decides with Iain Dale & Shelagh Fogarty.
Sky News	Decision Time: In or Out?	23/06/2016	Adam Boulton hosts a momentous night on the referendum result from 50 live locations. Is the UK really about to leave the EU?
CCTV	Dialogue	23/06/2016	Discussion of UK referendum on EU membership
BBC1	EU Referendum: The Result	23/06/2016	David Dimbleby is your guide as the votes are counted around the UK. Joining him in the BBC's Referendum Centre are Jeremy Vine, Emily Maitlis, Kamal Ahmed and Laura Kuenssberg.
France 24	News & Magazines	23/06/2016	Coverage and analysis of the results of the referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.
RT	News UK	23/06/2016	Live coverage of the UK's EU Referendum result.
BBC Radio 4	Referendum 2016	23/06/2016	Coverage and analysis of the results of the referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.
ITV	Referendum Result Live: ITV News Special	23/06/2016	Tom Bradby presents live coverage of the biggest decision facing the British public in a generation. With Julie Etchingham, Robert Peston, Allegra Stratton and James Mates.
BBC R5L	Stephen Nolan	23/06/2016	Stephen Nolan and Chris Mason with initial reaction from campaigners and 5 live listeners following the close of the polls for the EU referendum.
CNN	UK Decides: In or Out?	23/06/2016	Live coverage of the UK's EU Referendum result.
BBC1	BBC News Special EU Referendum	24/06/2016	Huw Edwards presents live coverage from Westminster on the EU referendum result, with reaction from BBC teams across the UK and around the world.
BBC News	BBC News Special: EU Referendum	24/06/2016	Huw Edwards presents live coverage from Westminster on the EU referendum result, with reaction from BBC teams across the UK and around the world.
BBC News	BBC News Special: EU Referendum	24/06/2016	BBC News presents live coverage from Westminster on the EU referendum result - with reaction from BBC teams across the UK and around the world.
CCTV	Dialogue	24/06/2016	Discussion of UK's decision to leave the EU
Sky News	EU Referendum Result	24/06/2016	Dermot Murnaghan with reaction and analysis of the referendum result. So what happens now?
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: Arlene Foster	24/06/2016	Recorded coverage of the speech by Northern Ireland's first minister Arlene Foster in response to the Leave result on the UK's membership of the EU, from Friday 24 June.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: Boris Johnson	24/06/2016	Recorded coverage of the news conference held by Vote Leave with speeches from Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Gisela Stuart, from Friday 24 June.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: Carwyn Jones	24/06/2016	Recorded coverage of the news conference held by Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones in response to the Leave result in the UK's referendum on EU membership, from Friday 24 June.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: David Cameron	24/06/2016	Recorded coverage of the Downing Street news conference held by prime minister David Cameron announcing he will step down in October, from Friday 24 June.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: Enda Kenny	24/06/2016	Recorded coverage of the news conference held by the Irish taoiseach, Enda Kenny, in response to the Leave result in the UK's referendum on EU membership, from Friday 24 June.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: European Reaction	24/06/2016	Recorded coverage of reactions to the Leave result from Angela Merkel, Donald Tusk, Jean-Claude Juncker and Martin Schulz, from Friday 24 June.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: Mark Carney	24/06/2016	Recorded coverage of the news conference held by the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, in response to the Leave result in the EU referendum, from Friday 24 June.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: Nicola Sturgeon	24/06/2016	Recorded coverage of the news conference held by Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon in response to the Leave result in the EU referendum, from Friday 24 June.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: Nigel Farage	24/06/2016	Recorded coverage of the speech by Ukip leader Nigel Farage in response to the Leave result in the UK's referendum on the European Union, from Friday 24 June.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: Ruth Davidson	24/06/2016	Recorded coverage of the speech by Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson in response to the Leave result in the UK's membership of the European Union, from Friday 24 June.
France 24	News & Magazines	24/06/2016	Live coverage of results of UK EU Referendum
BBC World Sv.	Newsday	24/06/2016	Coverage of the EU referendum results.
BBC World Sv.	Newshour Extra Special	24/06/2016	A special edition covering the results of the EU referendum.
BBC 2	Newsnight	24/06/2016	With Evan Davis. So... now what?
Channel 4	Power Monkeys	24/06/2016	Topical satire. The results are in, the UK's fate has been decided. Tony is keen to begin the healing process, while the David Cameron fudge has morphed into a sad metaphor.
BBC R5L	Referendum 2016	24/06/2016	James Naughtie and Carolyn Quinn present overnight coverage and reaction to the results of the EU Referendum.
BBC World Sv.	Referendum Extra	24/06/2016	Coverage of the EU referendum results.
ITV	Referendum Result Live: ITV News	24/06/2016	Alastair Stewart presents live coverage of all the latest news following last night's historic EU referendum result.
Sky News	Sunrise Special: EU Referendum Result	24/06/2016	Dermot Murnaghan with the crucial result of the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU. Did we stay or did we go?
BBC1	The Big Decision with Nick Robinson	24/06/2016	Nick Robinson examines what the results of the EU referendum will mean for the UK.
Channel 4	The Last Leg In, The Last Leg Out	24/06/2016	Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe are joined by Stephen Mangan to examine the EU referendum result and the most entertaining news stories of the week.
Al-Jazeera English	Listening Post	25/06/2016	After an EU referendum campaign full of racism and fear, we examine the UK media's influence on the result. Plus, how ad blockers are costing the news business.
BBC2	Newsnight Special: Life After Brexit	25/06/2016	In-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines.
RT	Sophie & Co.	25/06/2016	Bright, straightforward, honest, respectful. Questions that stick. Answers that matter.
CNN	Connect the World with Becky Anderson	26/06/2016	CNN's Becky Anderson joins the dots of stories and events by exploring how an event or circumstance in one part of the world can have a significant impact elsewhere.
BBC1	Question Time: A EU Special	26/06/2016	A special live edition discussing the implications of the UK's vote to leave the European Union. The Leave and Remain camps are evenly represented in the audience and on the panel.
Channel 4	Channel 4 News	27/06/2016	Extended EU referendum news special.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: George Osborne	27/06/2016	Recorded coverage of a speech by the chancellor of the exchequer in response to the Leave result in the UK's referendum on the European Union, from Monday 27 June.
BBC Parliament	EU Referendum: Jeremy Corbyn	27/06/2016	EU Referendum statement by Jeremy Corbyn, Leader, Labour Party, from June 25
BBC Parliament	Prime Minister's Statement	27/06/2016	David Cameron's statement to Parliament on the outcome of the EU referendum
BBC Parliament	Gibraltar Newswatch	28/06/2016	GBC Television Gibraltar present coverage of the EU Referendum vote, with local reaction, analysis and discussion on implications for Gibraltarians. Recorded Friday 24 June.
BBC News	HARDtalk	28/06/2016	Radek Sikorski, former Polish foreign minister: HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur talks to former Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski about Britain's Brexit vote
BBC Parliament	Live European Parliament	28/06/2016	Live coverage of proceedings in the European Parliament in Brussels on the outcome of the UK referendum on membership of the European Union.
BBC Parliament	Scottish Parliament - EU Referendum	28/06/2016	Coverage of the statement in the Scottish Parliament by first minister Nicola Sturgeon on the outcome of the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, from Tuesday 28 June.
BBC4	Power Monkeys	29/06/2016	The dust has settled in both EU referendum camps. Spencer is now scolding the Premier League and zigzag haircuts, while Tony endeavours to save his marriage... to the Tory party. (Ep5/6)
BBC Radio 4	The Moral Maze	29/06/2016	Debate on the outcome of the EU Referendum. Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Mona Siddiqui, Giles Fraser, Melanie Phillips and Anne McElvoy.
BBC Parliament	Conservative Leadership - Boris Johnson	30/06/2016	Recorded coverage of Boris Johnson announcing that he will not stand in the election to become the next leader of the Conservative Party, from Thursday 30 June.
BBC Parliament	Conservative Leadership - Stephen Crabb	30/06/2016	Recorded coverage of work and pensions secretary Stephen Crabb launching his campaign to be the next leader of the Conservative Party, from Wednesday 29 June.
BBC Parliament	Conservative Leadership - Theresa May	30/06/2016	Recorded coverage of home secretary Theresa May launching her campaign to be the next leader of the Conservative Party, from Thursday 30 June.
BBC News	HARDtalk	30/06/2016	Stephen Sackur talks to Segolene Royal, French environment minister and former socialist candidate for the French presidency about the British Brexit.
BBC 1	Question Time	30/06/2016	Topical debate in which guests from the worlds of politics and the media answer questions posed by members of the public
BBC R5L	Question Time Extra Time	30/06/2016	John Pienaar introduces coverage of Question Time, with the chance to continue the debate after the simulcast.
Sky News	The Pledge: Brexit	30/06/2016	This week on The Pledge it's a Brexit special. There will be straight talking debate on the UK's historic vote to leave the EU.

As said, we continue to record programmes relating to the aftermath of the referendum, as well as our regular news programming - some 40 hours per day. We will aim to upload new programmes to SAMI and Explore at the end of each month, but those who want up-to-the-minute recordings can always go direct to the Broadcast News service, which makes most of the programmes it records available an hour or so after broadcast. To access Broadcast News onsite, go to any British Library terminal, and click on the front page link for Sound and Moving Image services.

The British Library has also been archiving websites on the EU Referendum, as outlined in this blog from our Web Archiving team: Capturing and Preserving the EU Referendum Debate (Brexit). And of course we have been taking in most British newspapers as part of our standard Legal Deposit intake.

Meanwhile, the recording goes on ....

Recording today's news

 

Today's news may not always be happy, but it is often beautiful to look at. A new book, Visual Storytelling: Infographic Design in News, by Lu Yikun and Dong Zhao, shows how the rise in data journalism and reusable data sources has led to an explosion in infographics and data visualisations. These have been created by a skillful set of designers who can turn raw data into eye-catching illustrations that make better sense of the world while delighting the eye.

The book provides a background to the different types of data journalism design - pie charts, bar charts, radar charts, word clouds, 3D graphs, real-time maps and heat maps - and gives some of the history of the form. Mostly it is given over to sumptuous examples of news infographics produced by designers across the world. The index of artists at the back of the book provides web addresses, from which you can  discover the extraordinary array of work being done by what is, in effect, a new branch of professional journalism. Here are some examples (all of them illustrated in the book).

Erik Nylund, 'The Average Resident in Helsingborg'. Reproduced with permission.

Erik Nylund is an infographics designer and illustrator, from Malmö, Sweden. His infographic, 'The Average Resident in Helsingborg', produced for Swedish newspaper Helsingsborgs Dagblad, takes data about the residents of Helsingborg and appositely presents the numbers as part of the anatomy of the resident (even down to one of four fingers conveniently expressing a figure of 26%).

 Erik Nylund, 'Statistics about James Bond Movies'. Reproduced with permission.

Nylund produced this infographic in response to a competition from the www.informationisbeautiful.net website, which provided data about James Bond movies and invited designers to express it creatively. It was published by the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenska Dagblade in 2012.

Ciaran Hughes, 'Workers Arise!' Reproduced with permission.

Ciaran Hughes is a Irish artist and designer, who has produced infographics for many newspapers, public and commercial sector clients. His 'Workers Arise!' was a front page graphic for the Daily Telegraph that accompanied an article on apprentices in the workplace. Its inspiration was the work of the great Russian graphic designer Alexander Rodchenko, and it makes powerful, symbolic use of the red bars and the worker's hand gripping a wrench - a model example of the coming together of theme and form.

Henrik Petterson, images from his series 'The Graph'. Reproduced with permission.

Henrik Petterson producers a regular infographic series for economia magazine, entitled 'The Graph'. Subtitled 'Britain in numbers: a statistical portrait of the month just gone', it illustrates not only how news information can be dynamically visualised, but shows by its regularity how it can function as a news service.

If you are interested to see more of the work of news infographic designers, here are some links to the individual designers mentions, some designer showcase sites and prominent news data sites:

• Erik Nylund - http://www.eriknylund.se
• Ciaran Hughes - http://www.ciaranhughes.co.uk
• Henrik Petterson - http://www.henrikpettersson.co.uk
• BBC News: Interactives and Graphics - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11628973
• Behance - https://www.behance.net (design showcase)
• Bloomberg Billionaires - http://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires (great example of automated data news)
• FiveThirtyEight (Nate Silver) - http://fivethirtyeight.com (news data site)
• Guardian Data - http://www.theguardian.com/data
• information is beautiful - http://www.informationisbeautiful.net (design showcase)
• Newspage Designer - http://newspagedesigner.org (design showcase)
• The Upshot - http://www.nytimes.com/section/upshot (New York Times news data site)

Visual Storytelling boldly claims that "data journalism is the future of journalism".  It has certainly become an indispensable part of modern news production, and given the predicted rise in automated or robot journalism, we are likely to be seeing more and more of it. However, a robot is probably only going to provide us with bar charts. For wit, design flair, and deeper understanding, we are dependent on a talented group of designers, who like all good journalists, take raw observation and convert it into information and insight.  

Political Meetings Mapper, produced using Open Street Map

A final thought is why the skills applied to create infographics out of current news data are not applied more often to historical news data? More and more is being done by researchers, here at the British Library and elsewhere, to undertake analyses of large-scale historical news data sets. There have been some visualisations produced, such as the maps generated by Dr Katrina Navickas for her Political Meetings Mapper project on 19th century Chartist meeting found in our newspaper archives. Machines are good at producing maps, but what more could be done if infographic designers could get their hands on such data? It's something we need to be exploring further.

It's time for another edition in our occasional series on news about news, the St Pancras Intelligencer. Here are some of the recent stories on where news and where it might be going which have caught our eye.

Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages Project

Death to the Mass - Jeff Jarvis writes on the death of the traditional idea of the mass media as delivering the same content to everyone. What replaces it will be tailored to the individual, who is now the king over everything:

What has died is the mass-media business model — injuring, perhaps mortally, a host of institutions it symbiotically supported: publishing, broadcasting, mass marketing, mass production, political parties, possibly even our notion of a nation. We are coming at last to the end of the Gutenberg Age.

All well and good, says Roy Greenslade, but how in this brave new world are we to save public interest journalism?

When it comes to social media, news consumers tend to stick with 1 source - Media plurality is all very good, but humans still tend to stick with the familiar. The Pew Research Center and Knight Foundation find that 64 percent of social media news consumers get their news on just one favorite site.

43 percent of social media users don't know where the stories they read originally appeared - Some disheartening news for all news brands, as Digiday reports that 43% of social media users are unaware of them.Why China fakes 488 million social media posts a year - Mind-boggling report from Mashable on how China's government fills its social media with positive social media comments to distract its citizens from bad or politically sensitive news.

Digital archives of British national newspapers - Our own guide to current UK national newspapers available digitally at the British Library (and those which can't be found digitally anywhere).

A neighbor is better than a newspaper - A rather heartening report from Solutions Journalism Network, showing how the oldest form of news distribution - word-of-mouth - operates in rural Western mountain communities in the USA.

Facebook's Instant Articles

Facebook news selection is in hands of editors not algorithms, documents show - So many stories out there about how Facebook's algorithms are shaping the world's news. The Guardian reports on the humans behind the algorithms making selection decisions much like a traditional media organisation. Quartz has Facebook’s news feed algorithm is so mysterious, users are developing “folk theories” about how it works; Will Cathcart at The Verge has a long talk with Facebook about its role in journalism; Fusion reminds us that the real ‘news curators’ at Facebook are the engineers who write its algorithms; while The Independent reports Facebook denies claims it suppressed conservative and controversial news on its ‘Trending Topics’ sidebar.

Facebook is the new paperboy - And there's more. Matt Carroll at Medium traces the history of news distribution from paperboys to platforms, and how this is changing how newsrooms work.

Social networks could do much more to protect eyewitnesses in breaking news - Josh Stearns at FirstDraftNews calls on Facebook, Twitter and Google to do more to help eyewitnesses supplying on-the-spot news at disasters to protect and understand their rights.

Beware the ‘false consciousness’ theory: newspapers won’t decide this referendum - Charlie Beckett at LSE's Polis blog says that traditional newspapers no longer have the influence over something like the EU Referendum debate that campaigners imagine they have.

How the New York Times plans to conquer the world - Alex Spence at Politico reports on how the New York Times is eyeing Europe for new digital subscribers.

Suddenly, national newspapers are heading for that print cliff fall - The end has been nigh for a while now, but Roy Greenslade is now certain: newspapers "have no future".

A BBC for the future - And finally, among all the stories coming out the BBC White Paper - funding local journalists, cutting back on sections of its News website, no longer running local news index web pages, possibly merging the News and World channels - we were pleased to see this line lurking towards the back of the document: "There should be particular scope to do more to enable access to BBC historic news archive". Let's hope so.

Did you know that the historic back runs of most of the British national newspapers that are published today have been digitised by online publishers and that these are all available for free in British Library Reading Rooms? With the recent addition of the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph,  Independent and Independent on Sunday to the digital archives you can search at the British Library, it’s a good opportunity to review what’s available for all current British nationals.

 

The Times was the first national newspaper to digitise its historic back run and The Times Digital Archive has been available in British Library Reading Rooms since 2003. This is a vast archive which allows users to search every page of the newspaper from its first issue in 1785 (when it was known as the Daily Universal Register) up to 2010.

The archive offers access to a 225 year back run of The Times and contains, in total, over 70,000 issues which include over 1.6 million pages or more than 11.8 million articles. The entire file is searchable by keyword and by date and the content can be viewed at page or article level. In addition there is an advanced search facility which enables a search to be focussed on particular parts of the newspaper  such as ‘News’ or ‘Reviews’ or ‘Politics’.

In the years since 2003, when The Times Digital Archive first became available, back runs of most of the other currently published British national newspapers have been digitised and these are all available in British Library Reading Rooms. The titles are:

• Daily Express: 1900 to date, and Sunday Express: 2000 to date
• Daily Mail: 1896-2004
• Daily Mirror: 1903 to date
• Daily Star/ Star on Sunday: 2000 to date
• Daily Telegraph: 1855-2000 and Sunday Telegraph: 1961-2000
• Financial Times: 1888-2010
• Guardian: 1824 -2003
• Independent: 1986-2012, and Independent on Sunday: 1990-2012
• Observer: 1791-2003
• Scotsman: 1870-1950
• The Times: 1785-2010, and Sunday Times 1822-2006

Links to all of these can be via our Electronic Resources page (select Newspapers as a subject, then refine your search by Full Text). Please note that electronic access only works in British Library Reading Rooms and on our terminals.

Although the historic back runs of most of the British national newspapers that are published today have been digitised and made available online, not every current British national is available in this way. The following titles do not yet have digital archives:

• Daily Record
• i
• Morning Star
• People
• The Sun

Sample search on the Telegraph Historical Archive

The most recent additions to the list of digitised archives of British national newspapers are The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Independent and Independent on Sunday. These titles have only been available on our Reading Rooms since earlier this year.

The Telegraph Historical Archive contains over 1 million facsimile pages of The Daily Telegraph from the first issue published in 1855 to the year 2000 and the Sunday Telegraph from its inception in 1961 up to 2012.

The Independent Digital Archive contains approximately 750,000 facsimile pages and includes every issue of The Independent from 1986 to 2012 and every issue of The Independent on Sunday from its inception in 1990 up to 2012.

In some cases it is possible to carry out a combined search of more than one historic newspaper archive which can increase the efficiency of the search process and deliver a wider range of results from different types of newspaper.  The historic archives of The Times, Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Financial Times, Independent and Independent on Sunday are all hosted by the same on-line publisher (Gale Cengage) and these archives can be searched individually or in a combination of two or more titles. Similarly, the historic archives of the Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Daily Star, Sunday Express and Star on Sunday are hosted by another on-line publisher (UKpressonline), and the archives of The Guardian and The Scotsman (along with the Irish Times) are hosted by ProQuest Historical Newspapers. It is possible to combine a search of two or more newspapers within these groups of titles as well.

Digital newspaper archives have transformed the use of historic newspapers in research. Whereas in the past it might have taken days, weeks or even months to search through large bound volumes of newspapers or to trawl through endless reels of microfilm to find all the information needed for a particular research topic, in a digital archive the information is much more easily accessible and can often be found in almost no time at all.

Stephen Lester, Newspaper Curator