Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This qualitative dataset examines changing relationships between government, media and multicultural publics in the UK.

The Iraq War 2003 and subsequent events raise questions about the impact of security policy on civil liberties and human rights, democratic participation and citizenship, racialisation and securitization.

Through the analysis of "security salient discourse", the study sought to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of an increasingly mediated democracy. Specifically, the project examines how changing practices of news production in an increasingly competitive transnational news environment affect the quality of political journalism and judgements about the legitimacy, credibility, ethics and salience of "security" policy. It connects and articulates the empirical study of news audiences; analyses events and news stories defined as "security salient" by audiences and the judgements of media and political professionals about the stories and the political-media-security nexus.

In depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted in 175 interviews and focus groups with news audiences and citizens living in socially and culturally diverse milieu across the British Isles and New York, USA to assess shifting senses of social and national (in)security in relation to specific events, such as the London bombings of July 7, 2005. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were undertaken with news makers and producers, government, military and security policymakers, and security experts. They were interviewed about the mediation of those events, addressing issues raised in the audience research.

Further information can be found at the project website or ESRC award page.

Main Topics:

Topics covered in the interviews include security, news, multiculturalism, citizenship, legitimacy.