Live broadcast from Sarajevo
by digby
The BBC is doing an amazing job of commemorating the hundred year anniversary of WWI:
BBC News is used to reporting breaking news around the world. It’s what we do, part of the reason for our very existence. So if there were to be an assassination of a prominent European leader today, we would want to be there, reporting live. And audiences expect to consume breaking news in a live blog environment which is why we wanted to experiment with revealing history in this way.
This was the idea behind 1914 Live as the BBC’s First World War season reaches the first significant anniversary.
We would use all the techniques of breaking news in 2014 to report on events from Sarajevo 100 years ago, particularly the BBC’s Live format used to great effect during the World Cup and Queen’s Baton Relay. And we would do it by using BBC correspondents in their familiar roles…
No one at the time thought the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire and his wife would lead to World War One. So our reports don’t suggest that. But what they do reflect are the tensions in Europe that summer and how Europe’s rulers were all deeply suspicious of each other.
1914 Live begins by reporting a royal visit by what was, by early 20th Century standards, a very modern couple. It follows the events of the morning as they happened and ends by reflecting the shock felt around Europe which, unbeknown by anyone, was suddenly 37 days away from war.
It’s fascinating stuff, well worth spending some time with if you’re interested in history.
Vox, meanwhile, has put together a handy little primer to soothe you afterwards by explaining that war isn’t what it used to be. On the other hand, if there’s one lesson (among many) to be taken about WWI, it’s that things can hurtle out of control very quickly with very few people seeing it coming.
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