ABSTRACT

This article examines the 1985 Bradford City stadium fire through the coverage of the national, local, and specialist print and broadcast media. Drawing upon extensive media coverage, it argues that the reporting of the fire provides a useful lens through which to understand the emotional environment and construction of communities during Britain’s ‘decade of disasters’. Moreover, archival sources have been consulted to reveal the multiplicity of personal and collective responses to the media reporting of the fire, covering both the immediate and longer-term aftermath. Through letters sent by members of the public to the Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund, it shows how people received media narratives and articulated their own affective bonds with the tragedy. These included declarations of belonging, through which the disaster became the impetus for the creation of a multicultural civic identity in Bradford. Finally, it uses social services records to show how survivors and the bereaved continued to be affected by the disaster even as the story of the fire—as told in the mass media and through memorial ceremonies—turned towards resilience and recovery.

摘要

本文通过覆盖全国，本地以及专业印刷和广播媒体的内容，研究了1985年的布拉德福德市体育场大火。它利用广泛的媒体报道，认为火灾报道为了解英国“灾难十年”期间的情感环境和社区建设提供了一个有用的视角。此外，已查阅档案资料，以揭示对媒体报道火灾的个人和集体反应的多样性，涉及立即和长期的后果。通过公众致布拉德福德灾难上诉基金会的信，它显示了人们如何接受媒体的叙述以及如何通过悲剧表达自己的情感纽带。其中包括所有权声明，通过这场灾难，布拉德福德成为了建立多元文化公民身份的动力。最后，它使用社会服务记录来显示幸存者和丧亲者如何继续受到灾难的影响，即使大火的故事（通过大众媒体和纪念仪式讲述）转向了复原力和恢复。