Title: The UK Media-state Nexus in the context of Post-9/11 Terrorism Policy Name: Lisa Thomas This is a digitised version of a dissertation submitted to the University of Bedfordshire. It is available to view only. This item is subject to copyright. THE UK MEDIA-STATE NEXUS IN THE CONTEXT OF POST-9/11 TERRORISM POLICY By Lisa Thomas A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2014 THE UK MEDIA-STATE NEXUS IN THE CONTEXT OF POST 9/11 TERRORISM POLICY Lisa Thomas ABSTRACT Following the terrorist attacks on America on 11 September 2001, the New Labour government enacted an unprecedented amount of terrorism legislation in the form of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, the Terrorism Act 2006, and finally the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008. Whilst the government viewed these terrorism laws as vital to national security, many of the measures contained in these acts, such as control orders and increased detentions, provoked intense debates over civil liberties. Much research on media-state relations in the context of responses to 9/11 have found evidence to support the elite-driven paradigm, whereby the media have been shown to fail in their adversarial ‘watchdog’ role by acting as ‘faithful servants’ (Wolfsfeld, 1997) to the political agenda. This research tested these assumptions by examining the media framing of the UK government’s legislative responses to terrorism post-9/11. In so doing, it analyses the relationship between the media and the New Labour government in the context of the policymaking process. To date, longitudinal studies that map the UK media-state nexus within the context of terrorism policymaking are lacking. This thesis therefore, addresses the lacunae in the scholarship. In terms of its theoretical framework, this thesis tests three ii competing models of media performance (elite-driven, oppositional and independent) on British press reporting of the parliamentary debates (Robinson et al., 2010). Methodologically, it takes an inductive approach to analysing the framing of the debates, and draws on material gleaned from interviews with four former home secretaries. The findings reveal that of the three meta-frames (national security, civil liberties and party politics), the politics frame dominated across all four case studies. Although government sources dominated the debates, the evidence suggests that they had limited influence over the news agenda, which runs contra to the elite-driven (redefined here as government-driven) hypothesis. Instead, at an aggregate level, the evidence lends greater support for the independent model. There is also evidence that some sections of the press did subject the legislation to more robust scrutiny, and thus, to some degree, fulfilled their role as political watchdogs, which supports the oppositional thesis. iii In memory of my mother, Helen Thomas iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii List of Tables and Figures viii Acknowledgements xii 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Research Questions and Methods 6 1.2 Research Context 8 1.3 Thesis Structure 30 2. CONCEPTUALISING THE MEDIA-STATE NEXUS 34 PART 1: THE FOURTH ESTATE 35 2.1 An Overview of the Fourth Estate Thesis 40 PART 2: THREE MODELS OF MEDIA-STATE RELATIONS 51 2.2 Introducing the Research Paradigms 54 2.3 Elite-Driven Model of Media-State Relations 57 2.4 Challenging the Elite-Driven Thesis: Models of Press Independence 63 2.5 Applying the Media Performance Models of Robinson et al. to the Domestic Policy Domain 67 2.6 Summary 76 3. RESEARCH DESIGN 78 3.1 Media Content Analysis 93 3.2 Framing and the Construction of the Signature Matrix 101 3.3 Sample 110 3.4 Interviews 120 3.5 Summary 124 4. THE ANTI-TERRORISM, CRIME AND v SECURITY ACT 2001 125 4.1 Background to the ATCSA 2001 127 4.2 Press Attention 134 4.3 The Primary Definers of the News Agenda 142 4.4 Media Framing of Policy Debates 149 4.5 Editorial and Commentary Standpoints 155 4.6 Summary 163 5. THE PREVENTION OF TERRORISM ACT 2005 167 5.1 Background to the PTA 2005 169 5.2 Press Attention 179 5.3 The Primary Definers of the News Agenda 187 5.4 Media Framing of Policy Debates 193 5.5 Editorial and Commentary Standpoints 198 5.6 Summary 209 6. THE TERRORISM ACT 2006 211 6.1 Background to the TA 2006 215 6.2 Press Attention 221 6.3 The Primary Definers of the News Agenda 230 6.4 Media Framing of Policy Debates 237 6.5 Editorial and Commentary Standpoints 243 6.6 Summary 250 7. THE COUNTER-TERRORISM ACT 2008 253 7.1 Background to the CTA 2008 257 7.2 Press Attention 264 7.3 The Primary Definers of the News Agenda 272 7.4 Media Framing of Policy Debates 279 7.5 Editorial and Commentary Standpoints 285 7.6 Summary 295 8. NEW LABOUR’S TERRORISM POLICY (2001 –2008) AND THE PERFORMANCE OF THE BRITISH PRESS 298 vi 8.1 Patterns of Press Attention 299 8.2 Media-Source Relations: Evidence to Support the Government-Driven Model? 303 8.3 Media Performance: Watchdogs or Lapdogs? 308 8.4 Media-State Relations: The View from Westminster 312 8.5 Summary 318 9. CONCLUSION 320 9.1 Summary of the Research Findings 321 9.2 Contribution to Knowledge 324 9.3 Strengths and Limitations of the Conceptual Framework 327 9.4 Scope for Further Research 329 Bibliography 333 Appendices 366 Appendix 1 Content Analysis Codebook 366 Appendix 2 Signature Matrix with Competing Theoretical Models 376 Appendix 3 Interview Schedule: The Rt Hon David Blunkett 380 Appendix 4 Interview Schedule: The Rt Hon Charles Clarke 384 Appendix 5 Interview Schedule: The Rt Hon Jack Straw 387 Appendix 6 Interview Schedule: The Rt Hon Jacqui Smith 389 Appendix 7 Source Positions on Legislation (ATCSA 2001) 392 Appendix 8 Source Positions on Legislation (PTA 2005) 393 Appendix 9 Source Positions on Legislation (TA 2006) 394 Appendix 10 Source Positions on Legislation (CTA 2008) 395 vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES List of Tables Table 2.1 Media Performance Models and Corresponding Frames 69 Table 3.1 Newspaper circulation figures during the month in which each 111 Act received Royal Assent Table 3.2 Newspaper sample dates 112 Table 4.1 Progression of the ATCSA 2001 with corresponding newspaper 135 sample dates (12 November 2001 – 14 December 2001) Table 4.2 Total number of words and articles devoted to the ATCSA 2001 137 per newspaper Table 4.3 Story location by newspaper (ATCSA 2001) 139 Table 4.4 Article format (ATCSA 2001) 140 Table 4.5 Type of Author (ATCSA 2001) 140 Table 4.6 Number and type of visuals per newspaper (ATCSA 2001) 142 Table 4.7 Frequency of appearance and total paragraphs devoted to direct 144 and indirect source citations (ATCSA 2001) Table 4.8 Reporter tone toward pro- and anti-legislation sources (ATCSA 148 2001) Table 4.9 Predominant frames per newspaper(ATCSA 2001) 151 Table 5.1 Progression of the PTA 2005 with corresponding newspaper 179 sample dates (22 February 2005 – 11 March 2005) Table 5.2 Total number of words and articles devoted to the PTA 2005 per 181 newspaper Table 5.3 Story location by newspaper (PTA 2005) 183 Table 5.4 Article format (PTA 2005) 184 Table 5.5 Type of Author (PTA 2005) 184 Table 5.6 Number and type of visuals per newspaper (PTA 2005) 185 Table 5.7 Frequency of appearance and total paragraphs devoted to direct 188 and indirect source citations (PTA 2005) Table 5.8 Reporter tone toward pro- and anti-legislation sources (PTA 193 2005) Table 5.9 Predominant frames per newspaper (PTA 2005) 195 Table 6.1 Progression of the TA 2006 with corresponding newspaper 221 sample dates (12 October 2005 – 30 March 2006) Table 6.2 Total number of words and articles devoted to the TA 2006 per 224 viii newspaper Table 6.3 Story location by newspaper (TA 2006) 226 Table 6.4 Article format (TA 2006) 226 Table 6.5 Type of Author (TA 2006) 227 Table 6.6 Number and type of visuals per newspaper (TA 2006) 228 Table 6.7 Frequency of appearance and total paragraphs devoted to direct 232 and indirect source citations (TA 2006) Table 6.8 Reporter tone toward pro- and anti-legislation sources (TA 2006) 237 Table 6.9 Predominant frames per newspaper (TA 2006) 239 Table 7.1 Progression of the CTA 2008 with corresponding newspaper 264 sample dates (24 January 2008 – 26 November 2008) Table 7.2 Total number of words and articles devoted to the CTA 2008 per 266 newspaper Table 7.3 Story location by newspaper (CTA 2008) 268 Table 7.4 Article format (CTA 2008) 269 Table 7.5 Type of Author (CTA 2008) 270 Table 7.6 Number and type of visuals per newspaper (CTA 2008) 271 Table 7.7 Frequency of appearance and total paragraphs devoted to direct 274 and indirect source citations (CTA 2008) Table 7.8 Reporter tone toward pro- and anti-legislation sources (CTA 279 2008) Table 7.9 Predominant frames per newspaper (CTA 2008) 281 Table 8.1 Longitudinal frequency of source appearances by main source 304 group across all newspapers (2001–2008) Table 8.2 Longitudinal frequency of source appearance by legislation 305 standpoint across all newspapers (2001–2008) ix List of Figures Figure 3.1 Newspaper party allegiance during national elections, 1945–2010 115 Figure 4.1 Words devoted to the ATCSA 2001 by newspaper 136 Figure 4.2 Number of articles appearing in all newspapers over the sample 138 period (12 November 2001 – 14 December 2001) Figure 4.3 Source position on legislation as proportion of frequency of 146 appearance (ATCSA 2001) Figure 4.4 Reporter tone toward all sources across all newspapers as 147 percentage (ATCSA 2001) Figure 4.5 Predominant frames (%) across all newspapers,