Newspaper Campaigns, Publics and Politics

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Newspaper Campaigns, Publics and Politics Birks, Jennifer (2009) Newspaper campaigns, publics and politics. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/747/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Newspaper Campaigns, Publics and Politics Jennifer Rachel Birks BA (Hons) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences Faculty of Law, Business and Social Science May 2009 For my parents, Gill and Alan Birks 2 Abstract This thesis examines the practice of campaigning journalism, where a newspaper seeks political influence and claims to do so on behalf of its readers or a wider public. It is a production and content study of campaign journalism in the Scottish press, examining the journalists’ orientation to their readers, both in terms of social responsibility toward them in facilitating their citizenship, and in terms of accountability or answerability to them as their quasi-representatives. The study also analyses the newspapers’ representation of the substance and legitimacy of public opinion to politicians at the Scottish Parliament, in particular the governing Scottish Executive (now Scottish Government), and the framing of politicians’ obligation to respond to public demands as formulated by the newspapers. In short, it seeks to investigate newspapers’ democratic claims to be the voice of ‘the public’. Existing literature indicates that a key legitimation of campaigning journalism is that the newspaper is acting on behalf of a public or publics. However, it is not clear how these claims are substantiated. Existing mechanisms of accountability and normative conventions of responsibility are based on the liberal model of democracy, whereby the press are responsible for informing voters. In campaigning, the press instead adopt the language of representing group interests or protest politics that would fit with a corporatist or participatory model of democracy. These alternative models presuppose active or at least attentive publics, and newspapers’ interaction with and representation of them in this sense. This would fit with popular notions of Scottish political history as characterised by activism, and the aspirations of the Scottish Parliament. However, the campaigns instead addressed an imagined public that were conceived of as a market, and represented ‘the public’ as a passive and powerless aggregate of interests. Despite campaigning being taken up on behalf of disadvantaged groups, those affected were only given a voice to express their feelings as victims, and political advocacy was largely reserved to the newspaper rather than extended to associations and organisations in civic society. The neo-liberal assumption of private (not political) self-determination and freedom as the defence of property and other personal interests meant that affected individuals were portrayed as passive and vulnerable ‘victims’ whose freedom and agency were oppressed by criminal perpetrators. Where social welfare was addressed it was dissociated from taxation, and portrayed in terms of consumer preferences. Publics were otherwise addressed and portrayed as an aggregate mass of instrumental interests and fearful, defensive feelings, not as associative or discursive. 3 Contents Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………… 8 Author’s declaration …………………………………………………………………... 9 Chapter 1: Introduction …………………………………………………………….. 13 Chapter 2: The Dimensions of Campaign Journalism: Academic Literature on Journalism, Democracy, and Public Opinion …………………. 13 2.1. Campaign journalism …………………………………………………………. 13 2.2. Media and democracy ………………………………………………………... 15 2.2.1. The liberal model ………………………………………………….. 15 2.2.2. Alternative models: corporatist, participatory, deliberative…….. 22 2.2.3. The role of pressure groups …………………………………….... 28 2.3. ‘The public’, ‘public opinion’ and participation …………………………….. 30 2.3.1. Theorising ‘the public’ and ‘public opinion’ ……………………... 30 2.3.2. Public opinion in the media ………………………………………. 32 2.4. Post-devolution Scotland: media, democracy and publics ………………. 34 2.5. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….…. 39 Chapter 3: Methodology …………………………………………………………… 41 3.1. Approaches to the study of media ………………………………………….. 41 3.1.1. Philosophical orientation ………………………………………….. 41 3.1.2. Research traditions ……………………………………………….. 42 3.2. Field of study ……………………………………………………………….…. 45 3.3. Data collection methods …………………………………………………….. 46 3.3.1. Sampling ……………………………………………………………. 46 3.3.2. Sample matrix ……………………………………………………... 49 3.3.3. Interviews ………………………………………………………….. 51 3.4. Data analysis methods ………………………………………………………. 53 3.4.1. Use of NVivo ……………………………………………………….. 53 3.4.2. Thematic analysis …………………………………………………. 53 3.4.3. Discourse analysis ………………………………………………... 55 3.5. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………...... 56 4 Chapter 4: The Campaigns: Background and Key Events ………………….. 57 4.1 Daily Record …………………………………………………………………… 57 4.1.1. The politics of drug use: ‘shop-a-dealer’ and the march against drugs ………………………………………………………….…….. 58 4.1.2. The politics of credit: loan sharks ………………………………… 60 4.1.3. The politics of deviancy: ‘Ned Culture’ and anti-social behaviour ………………………………………………………...…. 61 4.1.4. The politics of gun control: airgun ban ………………………….. 62 4.2. The Herald …………………………………………………………………….. 64 4.2.1. The politics of immigration: the Ay family and ‘Dungavel: Scotland’s Shame’ …………………………………………………. 64 4.3. The Evening Times ………………………………………………………..…. 68 4.3.1. The politics of public service provision: Queen Mum’s / ‘Hands Off Yorkhill’ ……………………………………………………...….. 68 4.4. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….. 71 Chapter 5: Professional Journalism: Social Responsibility and the Market; Partisan Representation and Participation ……………………….….. 73 5.1. Social responsibility: informing and challenging readers ……………..….. 74 5.1.1. Objectivity and balance ……………………………………………. 74 5.1.2. Autonomy ………………………………………………………...…. 78 5.2. Market pressures: engaging the attention and interest of readers …….... 79 5.2.1. Interesting news: simplification …………………………………… 80 5.2.2. Relevant news: personalisation of victims ………………………. 81 5.2.3. ‘Consonant’ news: personalisation of perpetrators …………….. 83 5.3. Partisanship and advocacy: representing causes or interests ………..…. 84 5.3.1. Objectivity and advocacy ………………………………………….. 85 5.3.2. Direct representation of publics ……………………………..……. 86 5.3.3. Editorial prerogative ……………………………………………….. 91 5.3.4. Anti-discrimination and populist campaigns …………………..… 95 5.4. Campaign activism: participation and support …………………………….. 97 5.5. Conclusion ………………………………………………………….…………. 98 5 Chapter 6: Accountability: the Audience, the Public, and the Market …….. 101 6.1. Industry self-regulation and legal constraints ……………………………… 102 6.2. Readers as critics …………………………………………………………….. 104 6.3. Readers as contributors or publics …………………………………………. 108 6.4. Readers as a commercial market …………………………………………… 113 6.5. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….. 123 Chapter 7: Addressing Readers: Engaging, Informing and Recruiting …… 125 7.1. Engaging readers: personalisation …………………………………………. 125 7.1.1. Personalisation of problems: the experience and threat of victimisation ………………………………………………………… 126 7.1.2. Personalisation of crime and disorder: blaming the ‘baddies’ ... 132 7.2. Informing readers: evidence and context …………………………………... 135 7.2.1. Structural factors in crime and deviance: poverty and deprivation ………………………………………………….………. 136 7.2.2. Policy administration: welfare provision, priorities and taxation 137 7.2.3. Rights and responsibilities: competing interests …………….…. 140 7.2.4. Policy outcomes: prediction and risk ………………………….…. 142 7.3. Recruiting readers: selling the campaigns ………………………………… 145 7.3.1. Celebrity support ……………………………………………….….. 145 7.3.2. Addressing the reader ………………………………………….…. 146 7.3.3. Inclusive discourse ……………………………………………..….. 148 7.4. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….…. 149 Chapter 8: Representation of Publics: Social Attitudes, Agency and Participation ……………………………………………………………………….… 152 8.1. Journalists’ characterisation of publics in Scotland ………………………. 152 8.1.1. Political ‘public opinion’ and participation ………………………. 152 8.1.2. Expectations of public opinion on campaign issues …………… 157 8.2. Representation of publics: issue publics, ‘public opinion’ and campaign support …………………………………………………………………………. 160 8.3. Representation of public agency ……………………………………………. 167 8.4. Representation of political participation ……………………………………. 172 8.4.1. Representation of civic association ……………………………… 173 8.4.2. Representation of political accessibility …………………………. 174 8.5. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………..... 176 6 Chapter 9: Addressing Politicians: Obligation to ‘Public Opinion’, the ‘Public Interest’ and ‘Moral Principle’ ……………………………………………… 178 9.1. Framing of politicians’ obligation to respond to publics …………………….. 178 9.1.1. Politicians’ obligation to
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