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Identity and Memory Work as News Determinants

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Book cover Remembering the Falklands War

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies ((PMMS))

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Abstract

The second of the empirical chapters is dedicated to the BBC ‘story’ where I draw upon the ethnographic data collected with members of the BBC in the Falklands (henceforth referred to as the ‘BBC crew’ to distinguish them from the wider BBC institution) alongside the BBC television coverage of the 30th anniversary. Using this data I explore not only how the BBC represented the 30th anniversary of the war but why they bestowed particular events with particular meaning to consider what this might reveal about the relatively neglected and under-researched relationship between journalism and memory more generally (Zelizer 2008:80). In many ways the themes discussed in this chapter resonate with those of the military ‘story’ with regards to the negotiation and performance of institutional work through and in media texts. Yet, whilst in the military story I discussed how the military negotiate conflicting multiple identities (political, military, individual) differently depending on whether they are remembering in or with media (being an object of and subject to media respectively), here I explore how the BBC crew’s remembering with media appeared to inform a conscious and purposeful performance of a particular institutional identity in the remembering texts they subsequently produced.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Media and Film, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Sarah Maltby

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  1. Sarah Maltby
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Maltby, S. (2016). Identity and Memory Work as News Determinants. In: Remembering the Falklands War. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55660-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55660-8_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-55659-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-55660-8

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

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