A polite introduction

This opening chapter introduces the conceptual underpinnings of ‘belligerent broadcasting’. This refers to a broadcasting style characterised by the production of unscripted performances of anger, exasperation or impatience as spectacle (Higgins et al, 2012; Eriksson, 2014; Smith and Higgins, 2014) producing a form of engagement that has come to particular prominence over the last twenty years. As we will show over the chapters to come, belligerent broadcasting can be characterised, variously, as the surrender of media to a broader deterioration in manners and mutual respect, or as an expansion of media into a more aggressive form of engagement and its embrace of new forms of commitment and sincerity.