ABSTRACT
The failure to embrace the personal and emotional distance traditionally required of war correspondents in the 1920s and 1930s was not only a response to the failure to effectively report the Great War but also a reflection of the ideological and commercial environment that characterised the interwar years. Many correspondents either made a commitment to the conflicts they covered or withdrew into disillusionment or cynicism. Like many aspects of life during the interwar years, journalism had to respond to the cataclysmic changes brought about by the Great War. At the heart of the struggle to establish new professional practices was the expectation of neutrality and even-handedness, but for a new generation of war reporters, there was also a moral responsibility to report the horrors of war which had to supersede or be set alongside their professional duty.
