Conclusion: Multi-layered Secrecy

This concluding chapter draws together the experiences and written evidence from Britain, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway, and more specifically the trends and innovations that were associated with clandestine newspapers, in addition to primary evidence as it relates to public perceptions of D Day preparations and wartime writings. This book’s conclusions, outlined here from each chapter, provide evidence between 1939 and 1945 of democratisation of journalism, pluralism, and diversity, representing significant precursors to later twentieth century ‘citizens’ journalism’. It is argued that wartime examples provide early evidence of inclusivity in community press (pre-Internet) on a transnational basis (For discussion of Nineteenth Century newspaper and periodical publishing transnationally, see J. Chapman (2016) ‘Transnational Connections’ in The Routledge Handbook to Nineteenth-Century British Periodicals and Newspapers, eds. King, A., Easley, A., & Morton, J., Routledge, Abingdon & New York, pp. 175–184). However, ‘inclusivity’ may have had a different meaning according to whether a country was Nazi occupied or not. Allied newspapers, at all levels of society, demonstrate a confident unity of purpose, whereas countries under Nazi control used a clandestine press that was embedded in a different motivation and concept, for it involved a bigger, threatened ideal—that of resistance and hope for the future. This study challenges some assumptions about wartime media: firstly, that secrecy and journalism are incompatible and positioned at opposite ends of the communications spectrum; secondly that participatory inclusivity, in terms of writers and audiences, is a characteristic of ‘citizen’s journalism’ attributable mainly to the internet age. There is a central irony that acts as a recurring theme in this book—the fact that although wartime newspapers were a rare commodity, they nevertheless played a crucial role in everyday life, and in Nazi occupied countries, they became a nursery of resistance.