“I Think That Takes a Lot of Trust Away”: The British Audience, Elections, and Terrorism News

Abstract

This chapter examines public attitudes to the British 2005 general election campaign through a series of focus groups. The groups explored a range of issues, from reactions to campaign advertising, to perceptions of party political platforms to public responses regarding messages about terrorism and threats to national security. Did the British public appear to accept or reject the messages about terrorism emanating from politicians and the media? What were the factors underlying such decisions? What do the public know about the motives behind Islamic terrorism? Do the public think it is legitimate for the media to discuss such motives or do they think that the media should follow former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s dictum, strongly supported by some security experts, that such groups be denied “the oxygen of publicity”? What does the public think of official policies, such as detention without trial, which has been argued are necessary to protect the public from terrorist threat?