ing of both this horrendous dis-
aster and it’s fallout. After talk-
ing briefly about the framing of
narratives in the election a few
weeks ago, we wanted to take
an indepth look at the spec-
trum of reactions from news
outlets surrounding Grenfell to
help better understand how the
media framing of any issue can
vary so widely.
The stories here are about the
victims and their fight against
the establishment. The London
Evening Standard takes a fairly
neutral stance here, although
they were reporting on a pro-
test of some thousands over
Theresa May’s leadership and
the DUP Deal – a protest
that failed to make the BBC
News UK Front Page later that
evening.
Above you’ll see some of the
headlines that frame the pro-
testers as the key issue here,
vilifying their protests rather
than the cause of the fire. The
Telegraph claimed that the pro-
test that ended up inside Ken-
sinton town hall had been hi-
jacked by militants, The Sunday
Express reported on accusa-
tions that “Corbyn’s Labour
stirred up mob unrest”, whilst
The Daily Mail found space to
criticise green targets for the
deaths. There was also talk of
how the protesters “stormed”
Kensington Town Hall, argua-
bly painting the protesters as
rebels, although iWeekend of-
fered a less simplistic view
than The Daily Mail, noting that
the protesters had legitimate
grievances here.
Then there was a number of
papers who chose to focus on
the tragedy of the fire itself,
asking questions about how
such a catastrophic event
could have been allowed to
happen. The Mirror offers a
suggestion that the country
has turned it’s back on social
housing, whilst the i chose to
mention the PM’s chief of staff,
Gavin Barwell, who allegedly
sat on a report surrounding fire
safety in buildings like Gren-
well for around four years.
There were accusations on so-
cial media, and from Lily Al-
len, that the death count was
being suppressed by the main-
stream media. Many right wing
tabloids hit back at “Corbyn
supporters” for spreading
“fake news” about the fire and
it’s victims. Buzzfeed did a
great piece of reporting on this
very issue, separating rumours
on social media from the facts
of the issue, that you can
read here.
Comparitively, we see the reac-
tion from more centrist or left
wing outlets, such as the
Guardian, Evolve Politics, or
the Independent, who are fram-
ing these protesters as justice
seekers, not militant hijackers.
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