Butler, A (2020) Toxic Toxteth: Understanding press stigmatization of Toxteth during the 1981 uprising. Journalism, 21 (4). pp. 541-556. ISSN 1464-8849
Abstract
This article investigates how the press stigmatized Toxteth during, and immediately following, the disturbances in 1981. It builds upon a body of literature on territorial stigmatization where there is a gap in understanding surrounding the production and formation of stigma. Drawing on the acceptance in literature that the media is a key contributor to territorial stigma, I delve further to understand some of the techniques that the media uses to stigmatize place. I engage in a combined quantitative and qualitative analysis of 496 newspaper articles from five British newspapers to examine how the press reports on Toxteth, and who constructs Toxteth’s identity. I show that the name of ‘Toxteth’ was largely defined by the media and that the residents of Toxteth were denied a voice in the press coverage in 1981 with fewer than 10 per cent of all articles quoting a resident. I refer to this process as ‘stranger-making’, and it underscores the way that the media denied residents an ability to construct their own identity and the identity of their area. While stranger-making involves obfuscating the unique contours of Toxteth and silencing voices, the press simultaneously impose aspects of identity from a position of power through the techniques of naming, negativity, and oppositionality.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2019. This is an author produced version of an article published in Journalism. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Marginality; Liverpool; print media; stigma; territorial stigma; the press; Toxteth |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 Dec 2018 13:13 |
Last Modified: | 05 May 2020 15:43 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/1464884918822666 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:140188 |