ABSTRACT
This chapter builds on the sociological insights from the previous chapter to address questions as to why and how those involved in the anti-war movement sought to use a variety of different media platforms for communicative purposes. It also considers what the consequences of engaging with the media have been for the movement. The first part identifies and discusses the main objectives the local anti-
war groups have had for dealing with the media. Part II explores how the local groups assessed and accounted for the coverage they received from the local press. This part also considers how far activists’ engagements with the news media could be said to have influenced their priorities, activities, and the arguments they made. In the final few pages of this section I turn to consider how the national Stop the War Coalition engaged with the mainstream media and whether doing so had any transformative consequences for them. Finally, Part III of this chapter acknowledges that the anti-war movement also made extensive use of the ‘new media’ of online communications and ‘alternative’ publications to aid their communications efforts. The reasons why, and what this meant for their attempts to communicate through the mainstream media, will also be considered. We begin though, with what might at first seem like quite a conundrum.
