Alexandra Traynor

• How do UK Politicians and the Media Justify Position in Culture Wars with Reference to Public Attitudes?
• BA Hons Politics

The first step of this project involved taking note of what constitutes as a ‘culture war issue’ by looking at existing academic literature on the topic. I then compiled data from newspaper articles to analyse the media and politician’s use of referencing public attitudes and observing other reoccurring themes. The Black Lives Matter movement and the ongoing debate on the expansion of transgender rights were chosen as the case studies in which the newspaper articles revolved around, as these particular issues possess the characteristics of a typical ‘culture war’ issue, evoking emotion due to the moral values and ideas of identity at play in related debates. The aim of this project was to see how making reference to public attitudes would be an effective rhetorical device to employ within the context of culture wars due to the inherent nature of culture wars issues themselves whilst raising questions around the malleability and validity of ‘public attitudes’ and how this can be contorted to fit a pre-existing position that a politician or media outlet already hold.

Funding source: Newcastle University Research Scholarship

Project Supervisor: Dr Nick Randall