Bloody Sunday was one of the most controversial events in the history of the Northern Ireland conflict and also one of the most mediated. The horror was recorded in newspapers, photographs, on TV News, current affairs, in film and TV Drama.
In a cross media analysis that spans a period of almost 40 years up to the publication of the Bloody Sunday Report in 2010, The British Media and Bloody Sundayidentifies two countervailing impulses in media coverage of Bloody Sunday and its legacy: an urge in the press to rescue the image and reputation of the British Army versus a troubled conscience in TV current affairs and drama about what was done in Britain’s name.
In so doing it suggests a much more complex set of representations than a straight-forward propaganda analysis might allow for, one that says less about the conflict in Ireland than it does about Britain, with its loss of empire and its crisis of national identity.
The British Media and Bloody Sunday by Greg McLaughlin and Stephen Baker, forward by Eamonn McCann will be launched by Professor Martin McLoone, and Eamonn McCann.
Greg McLaughlin and Stephen Baker are lecturers in media studies at the University of Ulster, Coleraine. They are the authors of The Propaganda of Peace: The Role of Media and Culture in the Northern Ireland Peace Process.