Michael Rosie

Mediating Which Nation? Citizenship and National Identities in the British Press

This paper examines one particular aspect of the relationship between citizenship and media, namely the way in which newspapers establish, define or reinforce the boundaries of “national” communities (and thus determine who might be a member). The research is conducted against the background of devolution in the United Kingdom, which helped to focus upon and illuminate the diverse conceptions of national identities within multi-national states. We critique the routine application of theories of “banal nationalism” and “imagined community” in settings where different understandings of what may constitute “the national” co-exist. Analysis of newspaper editions distributed in England and Scotland highlight the complex, ambiguous and shifting use of national terminology and markers. Rather than focus on specific “newsworthy” events, the paper investigates everyday reporting of “ordinary” news and reveals the limitations of existing theories and accounts of the links between media and national (and wider social) identities.

What a Difference a Death Makes: Protest, Policing and the Press at the G20

The casual observer of the controversy over policing at April 2009s G20 summit in London might have been forgiven for imagining that Britains media serves as a bulwark against the abuse of power, fearlessly illuminating and condemning injustice. The publication of video footage and eye-witness accounts to heavy-handed protest policing has certainly raised the profile of this issue and led, concretely, to formal investigation of both individual police officers and to policing strategies more broadly. In this paper we examine the policing of protest, and in particular ‘anti-systemic’ protest, but also examine the role of the newspaper media in the interplay between police and protest. We argue that the media has often fomented and ignored the very ‘abuses’ they are now so eager to condemn. The key difference between coverage of the 2009 G20 summit and past such events, we contend, is the tragic death of an innocent bystander which has shifted the way in which the media has framed events.

‘The Anarchists' World Cup’: Respectable Protest and Media Panics

In 2005 225,000 people marched through Edinburgh enjoining the G8 to ‘Make Poverty History’. The coalitions own assessment of their campaign highlighted the importance of media by focusing on the extent of media coverage. Media outlets, however, have their own agendas. Detailed analysis of newspaper coverage preceding the G8 Summit suggests a disjuncture between campaign objectives and media frames. This paper explores how far newspaper accounts of G8-related protests were ‘framed’ in terms of social movement aims, and how far in terms of anticipated violence. Our findings lead us to caution against an uncritical equation of ‘coverage’ and ‘success’, offering a more nuanced account of the interplay between social movements and media.

Facilitating ineffective protest? : the policing of the 2009 Edinburgh NATO protests

This paper reports on innovations in public order policing during the protests surrounding the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Parliamentary Assembly in Edinburgh, November 2009. When masked anarchist protesters determined to ‘smash NATO’ gathered on the streets on the first morning of the Assembly, they were initially confronted by three plainclothes police negotiators rather than a line of riot police. In this paper, we draw on empirical data to offer an analysis of these developments and gauge the extent to which they meet the stated intentions of the police to ‘facilitate lawful protest’. Whilst welcoming the shift in attitudes and approach towards political protest, we argue that the accent on facilitation in this operation ultimately appeared neither innovative nor effective in practice and frequently reverted to styles of policing designed to contain protest.

Immigration, Nationalism, and Politics in Scotland

Scotland has been vaunted for following a distinctive — and arguably progressive — path on policy issues within the United Kingdom (Bradbury and Mitchell, 2001; Keating, 2010). However, while key devolved policy issues such as education, healthcare, and environmental policy have received considerable attention (Paterson, 1997; Greer, 2005; McEwen, Bomberg and Swenden, 2010; Cairney, 2011), there is a notable research gap on reserved areas such as immigration. This is a key oversight given compelling evidence that Scotland is developing a distinctive approach to immigration, and in particular the social and political integration of migrants. Although immigration is reserved to Westminster, its impact on devolved policy issues has caused Scotland’s parties to take a stance on this issue. Markedly, the positions of Scottish parties have diverged considerably from the UK party norm.

'Pants to poverty'? Making poverty history, Edinburgh 2005

July 2005 saw 225,000 people march through Edinburgh in the citys largest ever demonstration. Their cause was the idealistic injunction to ‘Make Poverty History’ (MPH). This paper presents an analysis of the MPH march, focusing particularly on the interplay between protestors, the police and the media. Drawing on ongoing research, it interrogates the disjunction between projected and actual outcomes, paying particular scrutiny to media speculation about possible violence. It also asks how MPH differed from previous G8 protests and what occurred on the day itself. The paper considers three key aspects: the composition and objectives of the marchers (who was on the march, why they were there and what they did?), the constituency that the protestors were trying to reach, and the media coverage accorded to the campaign. The intent underlying this threefold focus is an attempt to understand the protestors and what motivated them, but also to raise the question of how ‘successful’ they were in communicating their message.

King Mob: Perceptions, Prescriptions and Presumptions About the Policing of England's Riots

As journalists and academics, politicians and other commentators struggled to make sense of the social unrest across England, they reached for theoretical understandings of the crowd that have long since been discredited. The powerful imagery of the madding crowd has always been a popular trope with journalists, but what concerned us was the way in which even sociological commentators echoed such ideas. This paper, therefore, draws on our past research, informal interviews with senior police officers and media accounts to offer an analysis of the riots, how they were policed, and contemporary understandings of crowd behaviour. In so doing we question whether current understandings of collective behaviour, deriving from socio-political expressions of anger or protest, are equipped to make sense of the English riots. Similarly, we ask whether police public order tactics need to change. We conclude that the residual attachment to myths of the madding crowd continues to hamper the search for flexible, graded and legitimate means of managing social unrest.

National Identities and Attitudes to Constitutional Change in Post-Devolution UK: A Four Territories Comparison

This paper analyses survey data drawn from two distinct time points (2003 and 2006/07) to examine whether national identities in the UK are associated with support for further constitutional change. It compares all four ‘national’ territories of the UK: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We use logistic regression to model the relationships between identities and constitutional attitudes, taking into consideration other relevant social and political variables. While in England there is little evidence that national identities are constitutionally significant, in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, national identities remain significant in explaining support for constitutional change, even after we have controlled for the effects of other variables. However, this significance needs to be qualified by considering trends in national identification in these territories and the likelihood that these will contribute to demands for further constitutional change.

The ‘Scottish’ Approach? The discursive construction of a national police force

In 2005, the location of the G8 summit meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, brought the contested boundaries of the state and the nation to the fore. Confronted by the prospect of significant public disorder police forces in Scotland routinely flagged up a ‘Scottish approach to policing’. Drawing on research with key police officers and others we explore the processes through which national identities come to be articulated, contested and acted out in the context of one particular institution: the police. We consider the claim that policing of the summit was ‘Scottish’ and assess the implications of this assertion. Whilst the police have been argued to be integral to the constitution and expression of nation-statehood we highlight the dangers in an uncritical acceptance of police philosophies and also point to the banal ways in which national identity is naturalised.

Drifting Apart? Media in Scotland and England after Devolution

Given its multinational nature, the United Kingdom offers a useful test case by which to explore media assumptions about ‘the nation’. As part of the Nations and Regions project, we1 investigated the relationship between national identities and mass media. When people talk about events happening ‘here’ or about what constitutes news relevant to ‘us’, just where and who might they mean? Much research on mass media within the UK takes as its starting point the existence of a singular (and relatively) homogenous ‘British media’. In the context of devolution, that starting point is very problematic.