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Article published In:
Popular News Discourse: American and British newspapers 1833-1988
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 15:2] 2014
► pp. 207–227

“Dirt, death and disease”

Newspaper discourses on public health in the construction of the modern British city

| University of Salford

This study makes use of a range of local and national British newspapers and periodicals to examine the discourses of public health during the nineteenth century. It argues that many newspapers and periodicals used a very limited and limiting discourse to present often complex details to their readership. There was a heavy reliance on the use of established experts whose language was allowed to define the journalistic coverage of the subject with the result that other voices were marginalised or unheard altogether. Certain minority groups such as the Irish and women were stigmatised and blamed for the increase in public health problems. All of this combined to constrain the reporting of this crucial issue. The impact of an increasingly competitive print media environment also propelled this form of journalism towards extremes of language and of emphasis, resulting in an even more limited discourse.

Keywords: civic consciousness, journalism, public health, discourse, urbanity
Published online: 21 July 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.15.2.04ore
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