The subjective and objective violence of terrorism: analysing “British values” in newspaper coverage of the 2017 London Bridge attack

Abstract

This article examines howŽižek's analysis of "subjective" violence can be used to explore the ways in which media coverage of a terrorist attack is contoured and shaped by less noticeable forms of "objective" (symbolic and systemic) violence. Drawing upon newspaper coverage of the 2017 London Bridge attack, it is noted how examples of "subjective" violence were grounded in the externalization of a clearly identifiable "other", which symbolically framed the terrorists and the attack as tied to and representative of the UK Muslim community. Examples of "systematic" violence were most notable in the ideological edifice that underpinned this framing but also in the ways in which newspaper reports served to draw upon British values in the aftermath of the attack. This directed attention away from the contradictions within the UK, towards narratives that sought to "fix" these contradictions through eradicating the problem of "the other" and/or by violently protecting the British values "they" seek to undermine. As a consequence, newspaper coverage worked to uphold the illusion that "peace" could be achieved by eradicating terrorism through further forms of objective violence, including, internment without trial; the "ripping up" of human rights; and, closer surveillance of Muslim communities. Indeed, it was this unacknowledged violence that worked to maintain British values in the press' coverage. KeywordsŽižek, London Bridge, British values, Muslim/Islam, media analysis Analysing the London Bridge attack: aims, purposes and methodological concernsIn May and June 2017, the United Kingdom (UK) was subject to two terrorist attacks, the second of which took place in London on June 3. 1 While driving in a rented van, the three 3 attackers: Khuram Shazad Butt; Rachid Redouane; and, Youssef Zaghba, mounted the pavement along London Bridge, driving into pedestrians, before exiting the van and proceeding to Borough Market, where they stabbed four people. 2 Eventually, the attackers were shot dead by police. In total eight people were killed and 48 injured.While not deferring from the severity of the atrocity, this article will critically examine UK (London-based) newspaper coverage of the London Bridge attack. 3 Informed by SlavojŽižek's conceptualization of violence, it highlights how Žižek's (2010) analysis of "subjective" violence can be used to explore the extent to which media coverage of a terrorist attack is contoured and shaped by forms of "objective" violence (Žižek 2013). In particular, it is this paper's contention that examples of objective violence were most noticeable in the media's demarcation of certain outsider groups, in this instance, the UK Muslim community. Implicit in this process, is the way in which newspaper representations of British values were symbolically used in newspaper coverage of the attack and how these representations can be examined and challenged in order "to uncover their latent significance" (Taylor 2010, 92).Methodologically, this analysis is drawn from an initial sample of 359 newspape...

Evolución de los frames sobre ataques yihadistas en España y Reino Unido (2004/5-2017)

“…La investigación sobre el framing comenzó a prestar atención al terrorismo tras los ataques del 11-S en EUA y los posteriores en países europeos (Yang y Chen, 2019). Esta se ha centrado, en general, en la cobertura de ataques terroristas por parte de medios que tienen su sede en un solo país (Ryan, 2004;Altheide, 2007;Reese y Lewis, 2009;Powell, 2011;Black, 2019), pero también en estudios comparativos en diversos países occidentales (Papacharissi y Oliveira, 2008;Brinson y Stohl, 2009), o entre medios occidentales y de Oriente Medio (Fahmy, 2010;Nevalsky, 2015;Nickerson, 2019). Los resultados muestran referencias simbólicas en la cobertura (Liebes y First, 2003), diferencias entre medios locales y extranjeros (Schaefer, 2003), así como una gran diversidad y disparidad en la cobertura de medios internacionales (Rusciano, 2003), incluso cuando son del mismo país (Boyle y Mower, 2018).…”

“…En cambio, esto no es aplicable al macroframe Relato de la destrucción, que también involucra un componente emocional. En ambos atentados la cobertura del medio británico revela una menor atención a la hora de informar sobre estos hechos (Matthews, 2014;Black, 2019). Un aspecto que, sin embargo, es consistente con el carácter "institucional" de los marcos mediáticos, que se desarrollan como resultado de la ideología y la práctica profesional de los periodistas (Kwon et al, 2017).…”