You may think social media is a new thing, and of course our computerised media platforms are modern in Museum terms. But did you ever stop to think about the way police interacted with the community before we all had laptops, smartphones and tablets?
Ocean Island Homicide Headlines, from 1st May 1949. Image courtesy of Queensland’s The Sunday Mail
Newspaper notices, although far reaching, provided a not so in-your-face message. For hundreds of years newspapers have proven to be an effective format for delivering cheap, transportable, foldable and transferable news – but unlike the inky messages delivered on paper, social media provides an instant and economical service with the ability to interact if required.
Officer Leslie Arnold Atherton with the ‘White Ghost’ police vehicle in Toowoomba, c1940.
Image No. PM1768 courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum
From paper to steel, during the 1940’s a loud hailer was fitted to the roof of a police vehicle known as the ‘White Ghost’. This Chevrolet Special Deluxe utility provided an effective and transportable method to convey messages of road safety to the public, and alert them to traffic hazards. Today we use Facebook and Twitter to effect the same result: traffic warnings and other newsworthy events can be posted from a central location and available instantly on the World Wide Web.
Current social media: this snappy announcement was posted to Facebook on 15.09.2014, and has been viewed by over 83,840 users!
Image courtesy of the Queensland Police Media & Public Affairs
This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available. The article was written by Police Museum Assistant Georgia Grier. The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“THEN and NOW – Social Media” by the Qld Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode