Analysis of a beat-up: The structuring of a sensational media story

Brian Martin

doi:10.24135/pjr.v24i2.429

Brian Martin University of Wollongong

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v24i2.429

Keywords: attack journalism, Australia, beat-up, Daily Telegraph, News Corp Australia, newspapers, semsationalism, tabloidisation, terrorism, trolling, yellow journalism

Abstract

Media beat-ups are sensationalised stories that greatly exaggerate or misrepresent the significance of otherwise unremarkable events or issues. To illustrate how beat-ups can be analysed, a front-page story in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in the context of the US-led global war on terror is examined in terms of its venue, the journalist and the content of the story. The features of a beat-up may be less arbitrary than they appear on the surface.

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