Social control of the media: A comparative analysis of British media coverage of 1989 Hillsborough Disaster (1989 to 1990 and 2012 to 2013)

This study examines how the political elite shape the news coverage of the media by analyzing the two newspapers, the Daily Express and The Guardian’s, coverage of the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster – a disaster which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool FC fans and which remains the worst football stadium-related disaster in British history. Through use of media hegemony and framing, along with key theoretical concepts, several imprints of the power elite’s hegemonic dominance were found. The Daily Express and The Guardian blamed a variety of actors, including the football fans, for the disaster in their 1989 to 1990 coverage due to conflicting opinions between the elites. However, from 2012 to 2013, the coverage changed to blame mainly the police, thereby reflecting the consensus reached by the elites on who were to blame for the disaster. This shaping of discourse is the result of routinization. The study hypothesized that there would be a change in sources, from elite to community sources, in the 2012 to 2013 period because of the release of the independent report, which exonerated the fans. Instead, the study concludes that the two newspapers predominantly used elite sources in both time periods and that routinization is so engrained in British journalism that despite the revelation of failures by the authorities, these were still the main sources sought for information. Finally, the Daily Express and The Guardian not only predominantly quoted elite sources but also afforded them space to defend themselves in the very same stories where they were criticized. This was an advantage that was not afforded to the football fans when they were criticized.