On the first anniversary of last summer’s riots across the UK, a new study published today examines the media’s impact on communities.
Written by Dr Leah Bassel of the University of Leicester’s Department of Sociology, the study – entitled ‘Media and the Riots: A Call for Action’ – suggests that news outlets need to be held to account for their coverage of the riots that blighted urban centres last August.
Indeed, it’s the first report to examine the impact of the mainstream print and broadcast media’s reporting on those communities most affected.
The report reflects the views of those who attended the Media and the Riots Conference held by the Citizen Journalism Educational Trust and citizen journalism website The-Latest.com last November.
The conference brought together young people and community members from riot-stricken areas with reporters and members of the media. The report draws on views expressed by the 150 participants at the conference as well as the findings of other recent studies, journalistic reporting and research.
Holding the media to account
Dr Bassel recommends holding the media to account, engaging with journalists, communicating with decision-makers, promoting citizen journalism and social media and ensuring access to journalism.
Speaking about the findings, Dr Bassel said: “It’s hard to be balanced when speaking about media coverage of the events of August 2011. We were all exposed to images of burning buildings, masked youths and shattered shop windows that repeatedly flashed across our screens and pages, and which shaped the way we understood these events and our communities.”
According to Dr Bassel, there’s “a lot to say” about what the mainstream media did wrong which this report explores in detail, including how media coverage was “stigmatizing, too moralising, overly reliant on official sources in reporting Mark Duggan’s death” and “may even have incited rioting by disinhibiting looters”.
Dr Bassel continued: “What I want to insist on, though, is that when we take a closer look across different media there are opportunities as well as challenges.”
The University of Leicester academic continued: “This is not just a report on what went wrong, but also one which identifies what needs to be done and who needs to do it. Media actors can be held to account and citizen journalists’ stories can be heard more widely. We need to engage better with decision-makers and, of course, our journalists need to be more representative of society. Let’s break the cycle of unhelpful coverage and let more voices be heard.”
The report features a foreword from Roy Greenslade, media commentator for The Guardian and Professor of Journalism at City University, London.
Order your copy of Media and the Riots: A Call for Action