Culture Wars (2^nd Ed.)
The Media and the British Left
Communication and Society Series

Culture Wars investigates the relationship between the media and politics in Britain today. It focusses on how significant sections of the national press have represented and distorted the policies of the Labour Party, and particularly its left, from the Thatcher era up to and including Ed Miliband?s and Jeremy Corbyn?s leaderships.

Revised and updated, including five brand new chapters, this second edition shows how press hostility to the left, particularly newspaper coverage of its policies on race, gender and sexuality, has morphed into a more generalised campaign against ?political correctness?, the ?liberal elite? and the so-called ?enemies of the people?. Combining fine-grained case studies with authoritative overviews of recent British political and media history, Culture Wars demonstrates how much of the press have routinely attacked Labour and, in so doing, have abused their political power, distorted public debate, and negatively impacted the news agendas of public service broadcasters. The book also raises the intriguing question of whether the rise of social media, and the success of its initial exploitation by Corbyn supporters, followed by Labour as a whole in the 2017 General Election, represent a major shift in the balance of power between Labour and the media, and in particular the right-wing press.

Culture Wars will be of considerable interest to students and researchers in the fields of media, politics and contemporary British history, and will also attract those with a more general interest in current affairs in the UK.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Resurrection of the undead; Chapter 2 Rise of the ‘loony left’; Chapter 3 ‘Goodbye to the clowns’; Chapter 4 Press boomerang; Chapter 5 ‘Not funny but sick’: Urban myths; Chapter 6 ‘A wave of hysteria and bigotry’: Sexual politics and the ‘loony left’; Chapter 7 Toxifying the new urban left; Chapter 8 ‘Slaying the dragon’; Chapter 9 The Blair ascendancy; Chapter 10 ‘Enemies of the people’: The press, racism and Labour; Chapter 11 All change at the top; Chapter 12 Return of the repressed; Chapter 13 What goes round comes round

James Curran is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. He is the author or editor of over twenty books about the media, including (with Jean Seaton) Power Without Responsibility, 8th edition (2018).

Ivor Gaber is Professor of Political Journalism at the University of Sussex, UK. He has published widely in the field of political communications and is a former producer and programme editor for BBC TV and Radio, ITV News, Channel Four and Sky News.

Julian Petley is Professor of Journalism at Brunel University London, UK. He is the editor of Mediaand Public Shaming (2013), a member of the editorial board for the British Journalism Review and is a principal editor of the Journal of British Cinema and Television.