Narratives of Social Disruption: Education news in the British tabloid press

This analysis of education coverage in the national media examines the kind of events that attract media attention, and shows how subsequent education stories get worked up by the tabloid press into a generalized comment on social issues. Such 'meta-stories' are ways of commenting not only on the events themselves, and interrelated themes of school standards, but also on wider issues of morality, discipline, and social order. The study examines how blame gets apportioned by the press, both overtly, as in headline statements, and implicitly, in the recruitment of outside opinions, and in the choice of specific words to describe events. A discourse analysis of news stories shows how descriptions construct events as meaningful, as news sensation, and as a general reflection of social disruption and moral decline.