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Police, protester, public: unsettling boundaries in the public sphere
The contemporary media landscape is characterized by a fractured unevenness that unsettles the clearly demarcated boundaries, which constituted classical models of the public sphere. Police and protesters are traditionally represented in mainstream news coverage as occupying a binary in which the police are trusted and law-abiding and the protesters are not. Research into the way in which the relationship between police and journalists shapes mainstream representation of ‘violent’ protest has already been undertaken. Similarly the theoretical and actual potential of mobile and digital media to unsettle and challenge these top-down narratives has also been the subject of much academic attention. However, the way in which mainstream representations of the police force in general, and acts of police violence in particular, have impacted upon the demarcation of boundaries between citizens and protesters has yet to be explored. This chapter examines representation of resistance with particular reference to the legitimating potential of shifting us/them boundaries. It analysis the broadsheet coverage prompted by the death of Ian Tomlinson and argue that the police’s ability to frame protest is being undermined by technological, cultural and structural changes. It concludes by suggesting that these changes are impacting upon the representation of the police in such a way as to unsettle the ‘citizenship line’ (Waddington, 1999, p.61) that exists between protesters and publics.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Publisher
Palgrave MacmillanExternal DOI
Page range
195-208Pages
234.0Book title
Media, margins and civic agencyPlace of publication
LondonISBN
9781137512635Department affiliated with
- Music Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Editors
D Jackson, E Thorsen, H Savigny, J AlexanderLegacy Posted Date
2015-10-02First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2017-02-22Usage metrics
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