Facts do not appear unbidden before us, neatly dressed in the garments of officially accredited ‘truth’. Both in the worlds of academic disciplines and in everyday culture, what count as ‘facts’ and ‘truth’ are the product of artful rhetoric (that is persuasive devices) and logical argument. Truths do not simply inhere in a body of argument and data, they involve an interaction between those making truth claims and the audiences they target (Smith 1978). Academics favour conceptually precise, emotionally low key, rational language. By contrast, the language of law, order and race employed by politicians and the mainstream mass media is more likely to be emotionally charged, figurative, metaphorical and involve personal stories held to signify wider truths (Shearing and Ericson 1991).