ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the interviewees’ perceptions of the role played by the mass media during the 1984/1985 Miners’ Strike. The way in which the media portrayed the events of 1984/1985 is cited by many political commentators as one of the most significant aspects of the Strike. It is necessary to examine the press and broadcasting separately as they operate quite differently. In terms of the press; newspapers are all privately owned and overtly partisan - usually favouring the Conservative Party. A distinction does need to be made between the tabloid or ‘popular’ press and the broadsheet or ‘quality’ press. The former, such as the Sun, places primary emphasis upon being entertaining whereas the latter, such as the Independent, aims primarily to inform. J. Winterton and R. Winterton, in ‘Coal, Crisis and Conflict’, regard the main themes as; the question of violence, the issue of democracy, the emphasis on the personality of Arthur Scargill.
