HOW WILL INFORMATION HISTORIANS GET FROM OLD NEWS PAPER BE DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF IN POLICE REPORT
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For writing about any period in history, a historian needs to gather information from various sources so that he/she can get a clearer picture of the life and times of the period concerned. The archived official documents provide information from the point of view of the people in power. A police report is one such official document. The very nature of police records restricts the amount or the kind of information one can possibly get from them.
Another problem with official recordings is that often they only present what the persons in authority want to be presented. Therefore for getting wider and balanced view of a period in history, a historian has to go through unofficial records relating to that period, like the diaries of people, an account of pilgrims and travelers, autobiographies of important personalities, popular booklets, newspapers, etc. Recordings such as newspapers have the advantage of providing varied information to the historian.
Information is essential for writing history of a time which can be gathered from various sources. Apart from official documents in the archives, historians gather information also from old newspapers, diaries of people, accounts of pilgrims, autobiographies of important personalities and booklets etc.
News papers provide accounts of the movements in different parts of the country. Information found in newspapers is varied, based on incidents that have happened across the country. They may be showcasing incidents based on the views and thinking of the correspondents, news editors etc.
Whereas, the police reports are true, pragmatic, limited and localized. Because of this fact, sometimes the information historians get from the old newspapers, are not as useful as it is from that found in police reports. However, for any incidence the newspaper may not quote all the reasons behind it and it would be biased as per the thinking of reporter while in police records we could find some evidences for an incident and unbiased reports.