The present paper examines the importance of the press consumption in the context of the Great War� I focus on an episode chronologically set in the autumn of 1916� In that specific context, the territory inhabited by the Transylvanian...
moreThe present paper examines the importance of the press consumption in the context of the Great War� I focus on an episode chronologically set in the autumn of 1916� In that specific context, the territory inhabited by the Transylvanian Saxons came under the occupation of the Romanian troops, thus becoming a military confrontation area� I analyse how the military besieging or the occupation regime disturbed access to reliable information about the state of affairs on the home front and from more or less remote and/ or relevant battlefields� From the perspective of ego-narratives, published weeks, months, or years after the events, in gazettes, booklets, memoirs, or in local chronicles, I survey the efforts of the Transylvanian Saxons, who remained on the homeland territories or took refuge to the Hungarian provinces, to re-establish access to the press as an official channel of information� I show that the avidity for reliable news was immense, and the desire to reconnect to the world by reading the most recent gazettes was shared both by rural and urban inhabitants� The examined narratives express the concern of the civilian population to distinguish between rumours and trustworthy information� The study shows how, in the effort to prevent the black market of news to raise and ultimately undermine the morale on the occupied home front, the clerical and secular Transylvanian Saxon authorities collaborated closely and came up with transitory solutions to a critical situation�