David Haigron – författare

This book offers a historical, cultural, political and socio-economic analysis of the British media. It examines how facts and events are reported and interpreted, but also how ideas and opinions circulate and are recycled, with attention being paid to British traits and tropes in these domains. This in-depth study of “issues” and “singularity” aims at understanding how the British media have helped shape the country’s culture and representations, thereby providing its people with a sense of togetherness.

Volume 2 focuses on radio and (mostly) television broadcasting, from the interwar period to the early 21st century. In order to apprehend what is deeply engrained in British culture and thus contributes to shaping national identity, it analyses the ideas disseminated and reflected not only in programmes but also within media institutions in the face of changing political contexts, as well as providing a historiographical overview.

This book offers a historical, cultural, political and socio-economic analysis of the British media. It examines how facts and events are reported and interpreted, but also how ideas and opinions circulate and are recycled, with attention being paid to British traits and tropes in these domains. This in-depth study of “issues” and “singularity” aims at understanding how the British media have helped shape the country’s culture and representations, thereby providing its people with a sense of togetherness.

Volume 1 focuses on the press, the internet and cinema as mass media, from the prolific and innovative Victorian era – the matrix of the modern world – to the turn of the 21st century with the challenge of digitalisation. Newspapers, magazines, films and music are studied as vehicles for fostering shared collective identities (“imagined communities”) and for projecting a certain image of Britain at home and abroad (“soft power”).

This collection of essays examines representations of the English countryside and its mutations, and what they reveal about a nation’s, communities’ or individuals’ search for identity – and fear of losing it. Based on a pluridisciplinary approach and a variety of media, this book challenges the view that the English countryside is an apolitical space characterised by permanence and lack of conflict. It analyses how the pastoral motif is actually subverted to explore liminal spaces and temporalities. The authors deconstruct the “rural idyll” myth to show how it plays a distinctive and yet ambiguous part in defining Englishness/Britishness. A must read for both scholars and students interested in British rural and cultural history, media and literature.