David Cameron Meets the People: the Performances of Power and Citizenship in the UK Brexit Debate - Peter Lunt
Date: Thursday, 12 September 2019
Time: 11.30am–1pm
Venue: EZ.G.23, Female Orphan School, Parramatta South campus, Western Sydney University
David Cameron Meets the People: the Performances of Power and Citizenship in the UK Brexit Debate
Presenter: Professor Peter Lunt (University of Leicester)
Abstract
In June 2016, the British electorate voted by a small majority to leave the European Union. During the campaign, the prime minister of the day and figurehead of the Remain campaign, David Cameron, appeared on two high profile national television programmes in which he took questions from and engaged in debate with members of the public. Commentaries on the programmes were split between those who claimed that Cameron successful delivered his campaign message under pressure and those who paid more attention to the interaction between the PM and the members of the studio audience who were less convinced. An analysis of the two programmes demonstrates a number of contradictions in Cameron’s performance of power and illustrate the strategies of disruption deployed by members of the studio audience. Cameron’s appearance on the programmes reflects shifting understandings of leadership and campaigning as combining authentic political authority. The interventions of the studio audience, in contrast, reflect popular forms of protest and activism enrolled in the disruption of the performance of power. The paper ends with reflections on the performance of citizenship as political autonomy.
Biography
Peter Lunt is Professor of Media and Communication in the School of Media, Communication and Sociology at the University of Leicester in the UK. He is the author of five books and over 100 papers on media audiences and public participation, media regulation, and social theory and the media. He is currently writing two books, one for Polity on Goffman and the Media and one for Emerald on Chinese Social Media. His research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council UK, the European Commission and through a number of consultancy research projects.
