Newspapers and national identity: the BSE/CJD crisis and the British press

Abstract

Analyses of the relationship between the news media and national identity often tend to focus on explicit, stereotypical representations of nationalism in news coverage of appropriate subjects such as international politics, sport and war. However, there is a danger that the news media's role in the everyday reproduction of national identity through coverage of less obvious issues can be overlooked. This article is based on textual analysis of a specific case study: representations of the nation in British press coverage of the crisis over `mad cow disease' in March 1996. It concludes that whereas images and symbols of explicit nationalism were indeed present, what was more significant was the role of the news media in encouraging commonsense identification with the nation.