Journals as Sources of Change in History

The Case of Arena di Pola (1945-1948)

Abstract

The newspaper L'Arena di Pola was a firsthand witness of the exodus of Italians from Istria and Dalmatia after World War II. It was founded in Pula in 1945 as a daily Italian newspaper during the period of the Allied Military Government, until in May 1947, after the editorial staff moved to Italy along with the majority of the Italian-speaking population, it became the ''newspaper of the exodus''. Having moved across the border, the newspaper changed its objectives, intentions, and contents – but not its readers. The same people who read the newspaper in Pula, informing themselves about the international negotiations that would seal their fate, continued to read the newspaper even when they were scattered throughout Italy, attempting to find the roots of their culture and identity or any information about their family members or friends that would help them re-establish contact. Therefore, the paper traces the history of the newspaper in the years of exodus, focusing on the evolution of its contents. Overall, there is a progressive decrease in news of political-chronicle nature, which corresponds to a respective increase in texts of an identity-cultural nature, such as historical-artistic insights and memories of the past.