Media, Myth and Terrorism

the long version

"Media, Myth and Terrorism provides a rigorous case study of Blitz mythology in British newspaper responses to the July 7th bombings. Considering how the press, politicians and members of the public were caught up in popular accounts of Britain's past, Kelsey explores the ideological battleground that took place in the weeks following the bombings as the myth of the blitz was invoked. By providing conceptual discussions of myth, discourse, and ideology, Kelsey proposes a discourse-mythological framework designed for analysing discursive constructions of mythology. In doing so, this research considers multiple recontextualisations of the blitz myth when popular memories of 1940 recurred in 2005. Kelsey encourages readers to understand the politics of remembering by showing how popular yet inaccurate stories from the past have a significant impact on our perceptions of the present. Heroism, trauma, economics, royalty, rituals, human rights, foreign policy, immigration and multiculturalism are just some of the topics covered across a vast landscape of stories embracing a myth from the past in order to understand the present. "--