Want prejudice? Drop the blog, try a tabloid (1 of 3)

September 15, 2011

Here is a little puzzle. Picture two groups. In one, place those blogs that you have read about academic, cultural or political matters that interest you. In the other, put the newspapers most often read by the British public (I'll help you: the top titles are The Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Star).

Tim Luckhurst says that the material in just one of these groups is full of "wild rumours, half-truths and conspiracies" and is characterised by "brutal populism" and the "free expression of prejudice" ("Black and white and dead all over?", 8 September).

I know, I know, I thought it would be the one with the Mail in it, too. But Luckhurst is a former journalist and has therefore learned how to be an impartial observer of the facts. I don't suppose he can possibly have allowed a nostalgic, sentimental view of newspapers to let him get this the wrong way round.

David Gauntlett, School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster

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