[ecrea] new report: Journalistic Representations of Jeremy Corbyn in the British Press

Journalistic Representations of Jeremy Corbyn in the British Press
From "Watchdog" to "Attackdog"
Report by Bart Cammaerts, Brooks DeCillia, João Carlos Magalhães, Cesar 
Jimenez-Martinez

You can download the full report here:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/pdf/JeremyCorbyn/Cobyn-Report-FINAL.pdf

Open Democracy blog post about article:
https://opendemocracy.net/uk/bart-cammaerts-brooks-decillia-joa-o-magalha-es-and-ce-sar-jimenez-marti-nez/when-our-watchdog-be

Video on the media representation of Corbyn, produced by Chris Lincé:
https://vimeo.com/173876817

This research project provides a sound and theoretically informed 
analysis of the various (or unison) media representations of the rise of 
Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate for the Labour leadership and of him as the 
new leader of the largest opposition party in the UK. Furthermore, this 
project also aims to make a contribution to the ongoing public debate 
regarding the role of mainstream media and of journalists in a 
media-saturated democracy.

We set out to recognise and acknowledge the legitimate role of the press 
to critique and challenge the powers that be, which is often 
encapsulated by the metaphor of the watchdog. Our systematic content 
analysis of a representative sample of newspaper articles published in 8 
national newspapers between 1 September and 1 November 2015, however, 
shows that the press reacted in a highly transgressive manner to the new 
leader of the opposition, hence our reference to the attackdog metaphor.

Our analysis shows that Corbyn was thoroughly deligitimated as a 
political actor from the moment he became a prominent candidate and even 
more so after he was elected as party leader, with a strong mandate. 
This process of deligitimation occurred in several ways: 1) through lack 
of or distortion of voice, 2) through ridicule, scorn and personal 
attacks and 3) through association, mainly with terrorism.

All this raises, in our view, a number of pressing ethical questions 
regarding the role of the media in a democracy. Certainly, democracies 
need their media to challenge power and offer robust debate, but when 
this transgresses into an antagonism that undermines legitimate 
political voices that dare to contest the current status quo, then it is 
not democracy that is served.


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Nico Carpentier
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Uppsala University
Department of Informatics and Media
Kyrkogårdsgatan 10
753 13 Uppsala
Sweden
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) - Free University of Brussels
&
Charles University in Prague
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Media and participation: A site of ideological-democratic struggle
NOW AVAILABLE IN OPEN ACCESS:
https://oapen.org/search?identifier=606390
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New article (open access):
Beyond the Ladder of Participation.
An Analytical Toolkit for the Critical Analysis of Participatory Media 
Processes
Javnost - the Public, Vol 23, Iss 2 (2016)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13183222.2016.1149760
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DESIRE
Centre for the study of Democracy, Signification and Resistance
http://researchcentredesire.eu/
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International Association for Media and Communication Research
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European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School
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E-mail (UUppsala): (nico.carpentier /at/ im.uu.se)
E-mail (VUBrussels): (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
T (UUppsala): +46 (0)18 471 6341
Room (UUppsala): Ekonomikum building E329
Web: http://nicocarpentier.net/
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