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1 results

  • 1 - Doing the Amateur Casual

  • Stephen Donovan, Uppsala Universitet, Sweden, Matthew Rubery, Queen Mary University of London
  • Book:
    Undercover
    Published online:
    13 March 2025
    Print publication:
    20 March 2025, pp 34-63

  • Summary

    Chapter 1 makes a thoroughgoing reassessment of James Greenwood’s infiltration of Lambeth Workhouse that establishes its centrality for the emergence of undercover journalism and the ‘amateur’ investigations that followed in its wake. Greenwood’s ‘A Night in a Workhouse’ was one of the most reprinted news stories of the century and defined the methods, terminology, and even descriptive monikers used by generations of practitioners. Our focus is on the historical novelty of the reading experience that underpinned the new mode of covert reporting. Greenwood’s account gripped the public where previous investigators had failed because it inaugurated an original narrative subject position. Examining a Greenwood imitator named Thomas Carlisle who was motivated by scepticism, we show that undercover journalism appealed to audiences, not on the grounds of compassion or political sympathy, but because the incognito persona of an immersed reporter presented a powerful opportunity for readers to identify with the investigator.