How will the information historians gather from old newspapers different from that found in the reports?

Old newspapers provide information about the various events happening in different parts of the country. Historians mostly gather evidence from the old newspapers as it contains information about all the events. It deals with all the aspects of society like social, political, economy, administration, etc. It provides information about the cause and all the related happenings which is different from the report.

For example – it is a newspaper report of a police strike in 1946. “More than 2000 policemen in Delhi refused to take their food on Thursday morning as a protest against their low salaries and the bad quality of food supplied to them from the Police Lines kitchen. As the news spread to the other police stations, the men there also refused to take food … One of the strikers said: “The food supplied to us from the Police Lines kitchen is not fit for human consumption. Even cattle would not eat the chappattis and dal which we have to eat.” - Hindustan Times, 22 March, 1946.

The reports only give information about the particular event or incident happening in a city or a district. Reports provide information about the particular incident. The sources which we found were transferred in the early years of the 19th century from one branch to another for the administrative work like notes and reports prepared by the district officials, or the instructions and directives sent by the officials at the top to provincial administrators. It means that reports were mostly written by the officials, which could be biased and incomplete. The report is just a part of the entire newspaper and it provides the details of the incident like the various facilities or the arrangements that had been made or consequence of the particular incident.

It is a report which the home department acquired from different dockyards “Bombay: Arrangements have been made for the Army to take over ships and establishment. Royal Navy ships are remaining outside the harbour. Karachi: 301 mutineers are under arrest and a few more strongly suspected are to be arrested … All establishments … are under military guard. Vizagapatnam: The position is completely under control and no violence has occurred. Military guards have been placed on ships and establishments. No further trouble is expected except that a few men may refuse to work.” - Director of Intelligence, HQ. India Command, Situation Report No. 7. File No. 5/21/46 Home (Political), Government of India

The information in the old newspaper and in reports is based on the viewpoint of the person who is writing it which is wrong and biased. One should gather information by dealing with all the sources that are available.