Reporting David Livingstone's travels to a popular readership

The chapter examines the manner in which David Livingstone’s exploration of central Africa was reported in a London newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, between 1869 and 1870. In particular, I identify a) the typology of texts framing the news b) key discourse features associated with the reporting of the explorer, concluding with observations on the popularisation of the account. Analysis of the text types suggests that in the reporting of the expedition three features of knowledge dissemination prevail: the factual, the personal, and the ideological. The Daily Telegraph’s popularising of discovery and exploration is not so much found in the language it employs in its narrative and editorial commentary but rather in the news values it underlines and brings to the fore in its reporting.