Mediating Mark Duggan

The press is a section of the mass media industry that focuses on presenting current news to the public and is one of the largest forms of media we have in Britain. The press and media in general insist that it is only fact and truth that is reported to the public, however, there are times when the media either permits itself to be manipulated or to act as the agent of manipulation; seemingly, we as the public, receive the opinions of the few, select people that are running the mass media who use the power of mediation to position audience response through encoded values with the media acting as an opinion leader (2-step flow).

Mark Duggan was shot by armed police in Tottenham, August 2011, after officers stopped the cab he was in to make an arrest. Duggan was unarmed at the time yet just hours later stories were circulating the media about a dramatic ‘shootout’ with Duggan represented as a ‘violent gangster’. Within just two days of his death, riots had erupted in London as well as copycat riots in other cities up and down the country and reported globally by the press. Before getting out of hand, the riots were a direct response to the actions of the police. Mark Duggan didn’t hit the front page until after the riots had begun and it is likely that, similar to the case of Stephen Lawrence, the audience will never fully know the reality of the initial event. The final inquest report (2014) ruled that the killing was lawful. Looking back on the newspaper and press coverage, how was Duggan mediated?

This is the coverage of Mark Duggan’s death on the Daily Mail Online webpage. It was posted in the early hours of 5th August and is a prime example of how mediation can change the image of a person. The photograph used by the Daily Mail is a close up shot depicting Duggan ‘making a gun symbol with his fingers’. This picture was chosen for