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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Special issue › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Special issue › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Press and social media reaction to ideologically inspired murder
T2 - the case of Lee Rigby
AU - McEnery, Tony
AU - McGlashan, Mark
AU - Love, Robbie
N1 - This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm)
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - This article analyses reaction to the ideologically inspired murder of a soldier, Lee Rigby, in central London by two converts to Islam, Michael Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo. The focus of the analysis is upon the contrast between how the event was reacted to by the UK National Press and on social media. To explore this contrast, we undertook a corpus-assisted discourse analysis to look at three periods during the event: the initial attack, the verdict of the subsequent trial and the sentencing of the murderers. To do this, we constructed and analysed corpora of press and Twitter coverage of the attack, the conviction of the suspects and the sentencing of them. The analysis shows that social media and the press are intertwined, with the press exerting a notable influence through social media, but social media not always being led by the press. When looking at social media reaction to such an event as this, analysts should always consider the role that the press are playing in forming that discourse.
AB - This article analyses reaction to the ideologically inspired murder of a soldier, Lee Rigby, in central London by two converts to Islam, Michael Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo. The focus of the analysis is upon the contrast between how the event was reacted to by the UK National Press and on social media. To explore this contrast, we undertook a corpus-assisted discourse analysis to look at three periods during the event: the initial attack, the verdict of the subsequent trial and the sentencing of the murderers. To do this, we constructed and analysed corpora of press and Twitter coverage of the attack, the conviction of the suspects and the sentencing of them. The analysis shows that social media and the press are intertwined, with the press exerting a notable influence through social media, but social media not always being led by the press. When looking at social media reaction to such an event as this, analysts should always consider the role that the press are playing in forming that discourse.
KW - Corpus analysis
KW - Ideology
KW - Media
KW - Murder
KW - Twitter
U2 - 10.1177/1750481314568545
DO - 10.1177/1750481314568545
M3 - Special issue
VL - 9
SP - 1
EP - 23
JO - Discourse and Communication
JF - Discourse and Communication
SN - 1750-4813
IS - 2
ER -