Performing the disaster genre? TV journalism, disruptive factors and community challenges in the reporting of the UK Grenfell Tower block fire

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7477884
AutoresJulian Matthews (0000-0001-9207-1313, University of Leicester, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen24
Número10
Páginas2174-2191
Fecha de publicación2022-05-04
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournalism (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1464-8849 • E-ISSN: 1741-3001
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14648849221097735
OpenAlexW4225425406
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas22

News coverage of national disasters holds the potential to evoke unique moral sentiments and political reactions. Often, however, we learn that the common use of elite political actors’ consensual commentary by journalists serves to politically appropriate such events or render mute their potential. This paper explores a challenge to this observed authority skew in the performance of TV journalism (BBC, ITN, Channel 4 and Channel 5) while covering the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower block fire. The analysed reporting shows that the presence of (i) disruptive geography (ii) disruptive expertise and (iii) disruptive commentary challenge the reproduction of a traditional ‘reporting template’ and its inscribed authority skew. Combined, such ‘disruptive factors’, it is reasoned, enable opportunities for challenger voices to appear in number, and therein direct criticisms of both neglect and inaction and even to reflect on the state, race and poverty and incite thereafter an elite political apology

Elite · Journalism · Media studies · Neglect · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Disaster Management and Resilience · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Law

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