Abstract

The UK tabloid newspaper, the Daily Mirror, waged two prolonged campaigns in 1956 and 2003 against the proposed invasions of Egypt and Iraq. This paper compares and contrasts the campaigns and explores the changing character and voice of the Mirror in the context of efforts to reposition the paper within the popular market, and exert political leverage. It reflects on the meaning of sincerity and identity in relation to newspapers. It analyses and compares the deployment of established tabloid techniques during the two campaigns, including stunts, the use of celebrities, petitions. Particular attention is paid to the presence—and absence—of representations of the reader and the tension between opposing the war and maintaining a patriotic posture by supporting front-line troops. The paper concludes that, although “tabloid citizenship” merely presents the illusion of political participation, in the case of the Iraq campaign, it reinvented the carnival of the popular press in interesting ways and temporarily gave space for some radical journalism attacking neo-imperialism