Culture Wars
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CULTURE WARS Culture Wars investigates the relationship between the media and politics in Britain today. It focusses on how significant sections of the national press have represented and distorted the policies of the Labour Party, and particularly its left, from the Thatcher era up to and including Ed Miliband’s and Jeremy Corbyn’s leaderships. Revised and updated, including five brand new chapters, this second edition shows how press hostility to the left, particularly newspaper coverage of its policies on race, gender and sexuality, has morphed into a more generalised campaign against ‘political correctness’, the ‘liberal elite’ and the so-called ‘enemies of the people’. Combining fine-grained case studies with authoritative overviews of recent British political and media history, Culture Wars demonstrates how much of the press have routinely attacked Labour and, in so doing, have abused their political power, distorted public debate, and negatively impacted the news agendas of public service broadcasters. The book also raises the intriguing question of whether the rise of social media, and the success of its initial exploitation by Corbyn supporters, followed by Labour as a whole in the 2017 General Election, represent a major shift in the balance of power between Labour and the media, and in particular the right-wing press. Culture Wars will be of considerable interest to students and researchers in the fields of media, politics and contemporary British history, and will also attract those with a more general interest in current affairs in the UK. James Curran is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. He is the author or editor of over twenty books about the media, including (with Jean Seaton) Power Without Responsibility, 8th edition (2018). Ivor Gaber is Professor of Political Journalism at the University of Sussex, UK. He has published widely in the field of political communications and is a former producer and programme editor for BBC TV and Radio, ITV News, Channel Four and Sky News. Julian Petley is Professor of Journalism at Brunel University London, UK. He is the editor of Media and Public Shaming (2013), a member of the editorial board of the British Journalism Review and is a principal editor of the Journal of British Cinema and Television. PRAISE FOR FIRST EDITION ‘Admirable book’, Times Higher ‘Deftly illustrates how the audience can be influenced on some occasions and not others’, Guardian ‘Useful and accessible text for teaching about media power and influence’, Journalism ‘The strength … of the book as a whole lies in the way it highlights, in an easily digestible fashion, the complex and two-way relationship between politics and the media’, Media, Culture and Society ‘An excellent history and analysis’, Free Press PRAISE FOR SECOND EDITION ‘I read this book with mounting enthusiasm as it documented and analysed the roller coaster journey of what in the 1980s was ridiculed and repressed as the “Loony Left”, with its roots in the counter-culture of the 1960s, through the defeats of the Blair era to its “resurrection from the undead” in the leadership of Corbyn and McDonnell. Careful and revealing in its empirical analysis, Culture Wars provides an original and convincing perspective from which to understand the media’s changing rela- tion to Labour politics, including the new Labour leadership’s ability to establish its own rapport with a new generation of voters.’ Hilary Wainwright, Co-editor of Red Pepper ‘We may be living through a media revolution but this brilliantly forensic book shows that one constant factor still applies – the relentless anti-Labour bias in most newspapers and their continuing influence. Culture Wars is a must-read for all those seeking to make sense of UK politics. Indeed, it is impossible to make sense of what is happening and what has happened without reading it.’ Steve Richards, Political columnist and broadcaster ‘This outstanding new edition of the classic text Culture Wars revisits and analyses the complex relationships between the media, journalism and politics in the UK. The authors’ focus is on press (mis)representations of the Labour left in the context of radical changes in the Labour leadership, the diminished influence of print media and the growth of social media and fake news. They address provocative and signifi- cant questions concerning the shifting influence of politicians, citizens and media in public debates about gender, sexuality, race and environmental policy in an age of digital journalism and media. James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley’s eloquent, authoritative and for- ward-looking Culture Wars is essential reading for everyone interested in the signifi- cant role of news journalism in democracies.’ Bob Franklin, Foundation Chair in Journalism Studies at the University of Cardiff ‘To understand the left of the Labour Party is, today, essential to understanding the future of contemporary British politics. This book shines a really valuable light on one of the culture wars now raging in Britain.’ Tony Travers, Professor in the Department of Government, London School of Economics ‘It is not only generals who fight the next war as if it was the last. The British media, and especially its national press, is unable to escape its past as it eviscerates history. This is why the new edition of Culture Wars is not just important and gripping – it is essential reading as its authors start to account for the renewed strengths of the left in the UK, whose tap-roots they examine with unique authority.’ Anthony Barnett, founder of openDemocracy COMMUNICATION AND SOCIETY Series Editor: James Curran This series encompasses the broad field of media and cultural studies. Its main con- cerns are the media and the public sphere: on whether the media empower or fail to empower popular forces in society; media organisations and public policy; the politi- cal and social consequences of media campaigns; and the role of media entertainment, ranging from potboilers and the human-interest story to rock music and TV sport. For a complete list of titles in this series, please see: https://www.routledge.com/ series/SE0130 Africa’s Media Image in the 21st Century From the ‘Heart of Darkness’ to ‘Africa Rising’ Edited by Mel Bunce, Suzanne Franks and Chris Paterson Comparing Political Journalism Edited by Claes de Vreese, Frank Esser, and David Nicolas Hopmann Media Ownership and Agenda Control The Hidden Limits of the Information Age Justin Schlosberg An Introduction to Political Communication, Sixth edition Brian McNair Misunderstanding News Audiences Seven Myths of the Social Media Era Eiri Elvestad and Angela Phillips Culture Wars, Second edition The Media and the British Left James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley CULTURE WARS The Media and the British Left Second edition James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley First published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley The right of James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Curran, James, author. | Gaber, Ivor. | Petley, Julian. Title: Culture wars: the media and the left in Britain/James Curran, Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley. Description: Second edition. | Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2018. | Series: Communication and society | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018010457| ISBN 9781138223028 (hardback: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138223035 (pbk.: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315406183 (ebook: alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Social change–Great Britain–History. | Political culture– Great Britain–History. | Social values–Great Britain–History. | Conflict of generations–Political aspects–Great Britain. | Mass media–Political aspects– Great Britain. | New Left–Great Britain–History. | New Left–Press coverage–Great Britain. | Right and left (Political science) Classification: LCC HN385.5 .C86 2018 | DDC 306.0941–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010457 ISBN: 978-1-138-22302-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-22303-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-40618-3 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India CONTENTS List of figures xi List of tables xii 1 Introduction: Resurrection of the undead 1 James Curran 2 Rise of the ‘loony left’ 5 James Curran 3 Goodbye to the clowns 26 James Curran 4 Press boomerang 39 James Curran 5 ‘Not funny but sick’: Urban myths 58 Julian Petley 6 ‘A wave of hysteria and bigotry’: Sexual politics and the ‘loony left’ 81 Julian Petley 7 Toxifying the new urban left 118 James Curran x Contents 8 Slaying