Media Relations of the Anti-War Movement

In this book, Ian Taylor examines how a social movement, the anti-Iraq War movement in the UK, engaged with the media as a part of their campaigning against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Moving beyond content analysis to draw upon interviews with locally based journalists and activists, Taylor examines how locally based anti-war groups engaged with their local press, as well as how those groups were reported on by the local press in their respective areas. In the process of exploring these ideas, the book takes on questions like: - How did local journalists assess the legitimacy of the anti-war movement? - How, why, and to what extent did opponents of the war pursue local press coverage? - What bearing did the social composition of the movement have on the way they set about engaging with the media? - How did the local press handle the controversy surrounding opposition to military action against Iraq? Media Relations of the Anti-War Movement makes a unique contribution to research on the interactions between social movements and the media and plugs a major gap in the literature on the Iraq War and the media.

Ian Taylor is a University Teacher with the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University, and a Distance Learning Tutor with the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Leicester. He is currently researching the interactions between social movements and the media.

Part I: The Scope of this Study Chapter 1: Introduction: The case for researching the media relations of the anti-war movement Chapter 2: Frame Analysis, the 'Dual Role' of the Media, and Source-Media relations Chapter 3: Social Movements, Protest and the Media Chapter 4: Understanding the Iraq crisis Part II: Research Chapter 5: The socio-political composition of the anti-war movement in Britain Chapter 6: Local activists' engagements with the media Chapter 7: Matters of professionalism and legitimacy: The role of the newsworkers Chapter 8: Local news reporting and commentary on the anti-war movement Part III: Summary and Conclusions Chapter 9: Summary: Objectives and objectivity Chapter 10: Conclusions Appendices Appendix 1: Itemisation of different groups and media in the UK anti-war movement Appendix 2: Methodological considerations Appendix 3: Short version of survey: Local group questionnaire Appendix 4.1: Interview Diary - Activists Appendix 4.2: Interview Diary - Journalists