ABSTRACT

Before Winston Churchill made history, he made news. To a great extent also, the news made him. If it was his own efforts that made him a hero, it was the media that made him a celebrity, and they have been considerably responsible for perpetuating his memory and shaping his reputation in the years since his death. The “New Journalism” of the 1880s and 1890s was brash, populist, and exciting. As Jonathan Rose has noted, Lord Randolph Churchill “had been among the first politicians to exploit personality-driven journalism successfully”. Churchill’s image and indeed his literary style were shaped by the media technology of his age. First, his journalism was influenced by the means that he had at his disposal to convey his writings home. Churchill spent his early life seeking out celebrity, to a great extent as well celebrity was thrust upon him.