HG Wells | Science and the Citizen

HG Wells addresses the British Association Conference on the topic of 'Science and the Citizen'. In typical provocative style, he dismisses the medium of the newspaper as dead and the art of journalism as prostitution. He claims that reports in newspapers are unreliable and predicts that people might prefer to receive a constantly updated news summary through their telephones rather than being forced to buy 'three or four newspapers to find out what is being concealed from us'. He also contends that the public has a great appetite for reading informative material; so, he jokes, there should be mass book burnings to remove low-quality and out-of-date publications from local libraries.

HG Wells first worked as a journalist to supplement his income while employed as a teacher, but became a full-time writer after ill health forced him to leave the teaching profession. Among the many periodicals he wrote for were 'The Educational Times', 'Saturday Review' and 'The Pall Mall Gazette'.