Local press reporting of opposition to the 2003 Iraq War in the UK and the case for reconceptualizing notions of legitimacy and deviance

The decision to embark upon military action is often controversial—the 2003 Iraq War certainly was. Studies investigating the reporting of the controversies surrounding the use of force have frequently made use of Hallin's (1986) ‘Spheres of opinion’ model so as to distinguish between ‘legitimate’ and ‘deviant’ opinion. They have also identified a number of recurrent features to the reporting of demonstrations, including anti-war demonstrations, that work to position oppositional movements within the sphere of ‘deviant’ opinion. This frame of reporting is often referred to as the ‘protest paradigm’. Yet after having examined how opponents of the Iraq War were reported on in a select sample of local newspapers, it soon became apparent that things were not so straightforward in this case. Those who marched against the invasion were never overtly condemned in local reporting, although they were sometimes treated with a measure of wariness. Furthermore there were even occasions when they were treated as partially legitimate participants in debates about the crisis. These findings then call for a reconsideration of ‘legitimacy’ and ‘deviance’ and the idea that there might be clear blue water between them. Consequently, a more nuanced model for calibrating the degree of acceptability or otherwise of the anti-war movement (and other political actors) has been developed for—and is outlined in—this article.