A matter of law and order: reporting the Salford riots in local news webpages

On 9 August 2011, hundreds of citizens gathered in the streets of Salford, predominately in the precinct area. Violence escalated as commercial and domestic properties were set on fire and rioters engaged in widespread looting. Simultaneously, riots were taking place across the country in cities such as London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Liverpool and were covered extensively by national and local media. This paper focuses on local media coverage of the Salford riots in an attempt to shed light on the main interpretations which the local media offered to their readers. A (quantitative and qualitative) content analysis was conducted on news reported in four major local news websites during the period 9 August–6 September 2011 (N = 100) in order to identify the most common themes and frames presented by the media in reporting the Salford riots. Results show the overwhelming presence of a crime frame to the events: news outlets concentrated on policing and juridical aspects of the events with little room for political and larger social debates. The paper discusses differences between outlets and time frame, as well as the potential implications of imposing this type of framing on collective action.