What is it about?
Britain and America's decision to invade Iraq was extremely controversial generating a substantial amount of active opposition. Amongst other things, this resulted in the formation of numerous local anti-war groups across the country, while many already existing anti-war groups also became far more active during this time. (There were a few hundred such groups in early 2003). These local anti-war groups organised a lot of local demonstrations and local public meetings, and they also promoted and arranged transport for national demonstrations. Many of these activities were reported on by the local press in their areas with the protests (local and national) being their most newsworthy activities. Simply put then: this study examines how the local press reported on the protests these local anti-war groups were involved in.
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Why is it important?
The study challenges a lot of long-standing academic ideas about how the press report on protests. In order to illustrate my rather surprising findings, I had to substantially revise a well-known academic model for making sense of how the media distinguish between legitimacy and deviance in their reporting. It produces a more nuanced alternative model.
Perspectives
A lot of left-wing activists automatically assume that all of the media are against them, and as a result often shun any attempts to engage with the media. Either that or they deal with the media through gritted teeth, struggling to contain their wariness of them. But what if that's wrong? What if, as this study suggests, some sections of the media, like the local press, are sometimes prepared to adopt a more sympathetic stance towards left-wing activism? If that's the case then left-wing activists would have passed over the opportunity to make the best use of (sections of) the media and bend its powers to serve their purposes.
Dr Ian Taylor
University of Leicester
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Local press reporting of opposition to the 2003 Iraq War in the UK and the case for reconceptualizing notions of legitimacy and deviance, Journal of War and Culture Studies, January 2014, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1179/1752628013y.0000000006.
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