PS Scandalisation, Sexualisation, and Stereotyping: Tabloid Journalism in Britain, 1920-2020

In this online seminar, we will be looking into the characteristics of British newspaper texts published by, among others, the Daily Express, Daily Mail, and Daily Mirror. In so doing, we are going to consider and compare the application of tabloid-journalistic tools such as sensationalism and extreme dramatisation of news. All of this will be done against the background of the news coverage of four major historic events: the General Strike (1926), the Good Friday Agreement (1998), Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War (2003), and the Brexit referendum (2016). The concepts of the Culture Industry as developed by Adorno and Horkheimer (1947) as well as Stanley Cohen's Moral Panic (1973) will be utilised as theoretical starting points. In order to obtain access to the seminar texts, you will have to create a VPN connection on your computer.
Semester: 2021 Sommersemester