Who wrote ‘A Visit to the Western Goldfields’? Using Computers to Analyse Language in Historical Research

Crabb, Peter; Antonia, Alexis; Craig, Hugh

doi:10.1080/14490854.2014.11668539

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…85 Over that period, from the beginning of February to the beginning of April 1861, another 'Special Commissioner' reported from Lambing Flat for the Sydney Morning Herald. 86 With the exception of reports in late February 87 and again in late March and the beginning of April, 88 they were short, factual and provided little comment, but they offered an eyewitness account of the events that took place during the conflicts between the European and Chinese miners, in contrast to much misreporting, even from government officials. 89 Thus far, the identity of the reporter has not been determined.…”

Section: Lambing Flatmentioning

confidence: 99%

John Augustus Hux (1826–1864): A colonial goldfields reporter

Crabb¹

2020

AJBH

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Affairs are in such a state at the Flat that it is dangerous for any one to give their opinions with respect to the proceedings that have taken place: but I will state my opinions, without fear or favour, let the result be what it may. So wrote John Augustus Hux in response to death threats he received as a consequence of his reporting of the anti-Chinese riots at Lambing Flat on 30 June 1861. 2 The statement provides an indication of the character of a man who came to Australia in the early 1850s and then spent most of the rest of his short life on the colonial goldfields in the 1850s and 1860s. Gold, newspapers and reporters The discovery of gold in the mid nineteenth century changed the face of colonial society in Australia dramatically and in countless ways, not least through the massive migration and population growth it spurred. Covering the goldrushes and the many changes that occurred were major tasks for contemporary newspapers, as the public's appetite for information about gold was insatiable. The main sources for this information were the newspapers and, for them, gold was 'gold', not least for the capital city dailies, such as the Sydney Morning Herald, The Empire (Sydney) and The Argus (Melbourne). Gold took up a significant proportion of their pages, with just about everything imaginable associated with the precious metal: editorials, specific reports, short reports in the 'Domestic Intelligence' columns, the 'Gold Circulars', reports from other colonies and overseas (for example, California, New Zealand), 'Original Correspondence' (letters to the editor), personal messages and countless advertisements for everything connected with gold and its mining, such as the necessary clothing and equipment, and even 'how-to' books. Much of the 1 Much appreciation is extended to Dr Alexis Antonia, Centre for Literary and Linguistic Computing, University of Newcastle, for textual analysis in helping to confirm the attribution of some of Hux's articles, and for confirming the presence of another so-far anonymous 'Special Commissioner' reporting for the Sydney Morning Herald from Lambing Flat. Her comments on an earlier version of this article are also appreciated. Thanks are also due to Malcolm Allbrook and Brendan Dalton for numerous discussions, to Clive Hilliker for his cartography and to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

show abstract

Section: Lambing Flatmentioning

confidence: 99%

John Augustus Hux (1826–1864): A colonial goldfields reporter

Crabb¹

2020

AJBH

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The life of the researcher has been made easier and more efficient by the emergence of digital – some of them full-text – Australian and indeed international resources (GLAM Peak, c. 2016–2017). An editorial, and some articles, in History Australia in 2014 considered ‘how new vistas [were] opening up as so many records including newspapers are digitised and made available to researchers’ through databases (Akami et al, 2014: 5; see also, for example, Crabb et al, 2014). It is interesting to note that the Trove portal was so popular by 2017 that all NLA digital delivery systems were branded ‘Trove’ (Ayres, 2015: 8–9).…”

Section: From Analogue To Digitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adrian Bingham (2010: 229) warns that keyword searching can be a blunt instrument; I would add that manual searching has the capacity to bring us serendipitous findings (Akami et al, 2014: 7; Smits, 2017: 94; Wijfjes, c. 2016–2017: 3). Then again, Australian researchers are fortunate that Trove supplies not just the full text of articles, but an image of the whole page (Crabb et al, 2014: 179). We need to be aware that research may be distorted by the availability of certain titles and the absence of others.…”

Section: From Analogue To Digitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inaugural KS Inglis address: making Australian media history

Griffen‐Foley

2018

Media International Australia

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This address considers the development of media history as a field of research in Australia. It takes the form of a historiographical excursion, beginning with a focus on the press, and then extending to broadcasting, and touching on the work of KS Inglis as a through line. After considering what I identify as a historiographical blossoming since the 1980s, I extend my gaze to the tools and institutions for media history that have emerged, including online resources, a conference series and a research centre. Finally, I use my own 1990s research into the Packer empire to illustrate how some of the techniques for doing media history have changed in the past 20 years. In doing so, I reflect on both the benefits, and the limitations, of digital tools and techniques for Australian media historians.

show abstract

Who wrote ‘A Visit to the Western Goldfields’? Using Computers to Analyse Language in Historical Research

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

John Augustus Hux (1826–1864): A colonial goldfields reporter

John Augustus Hux (1826–1864): A colonial goldfields reporter

Inaugural KS Inglis address: making Australian media history

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About