Access is available on and off campus to current McMaster University students, faculty and staff.
Coverage: 1939 to 2001
BBC Monitoring was founded in 1939 at the start of WWII. Its purpose was to listen to radio broadcasts and gather open-source intelligence to help Britain and its allies understand global dynamics and assess emerging global threats and capabilities. Over the next 60 years, the scope of its monitoring grew quickly. Trained specialists transcribed broadcasts of speeches, current aff airs, political discussions, and social and cultural events worldwide. Transcripts, in turn, were translated into English, then read by experts who carefully selected critical content for publication. Finally, selections were summarized and curated into daily reports that comprise the Summary of World Broadcasts. These original daily reports often included commentary and evaluation by subject-matter experts, as well as synopses and specialist briefings.
Daily digests of foreign radio and television broadcasts are vital primary sources for scholars and teachers specializing in 20th-century political, social, cultural, and economic history. Researchers will discover unmatched insights into key regions, global events, and national security priorities of the UK government, including WWII, the Cold War, Communist China, Chernobyl, Ukraine, and the Soviet Union/Russia.
