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Social media, language
and politicsAdvanced English Course – Francesca Helm
What
political
impact
can a
tweet like
this have?
Background contextual knowledge
needed to understand the story
What does the ‘white van’ represent in the UK?
What is the England flag seen to represent?
Why is Rochester significant at this time?
Where are you going to get this information?
What happened after the tweet was published?
The tweet was ‘re-tweeted’ on Guido Fawkes’ blog, one of the most
widely read ‘political commentary’ blogs – with the heading below
– and from here went on to mainstream media outlets
This is a very ‘British’ story, but it serves to bring out some of the strong links
between language and culture and, to a lesser extent, language and
politics, the themes we will be discussing for the next few weeks, as well as
political blogging.
It is linked to so much ‘cultural’ baggage that even international
newspapers had trouble understanding and interpreting the story – to the
extent that the Guardian published an article on how to explain the story to
non-British people.
It is also of relevance to the topics you may do for your blogs as it includes
issues of power, media and also gender issues.
Links
Emily Thornbetty’s Twitter account
"Snob Labour MP's Twitter dig at White Van Man's England Flags“
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/21/uk-britain-politics-flag-
idUKKCN0J515Z20141121
Guido Fawkes’ blog
The Guardian explains the story
Article we will be analysing in class on Friday
Vocabulary: by-election
A by-election takes place when a seat in the House of Commons becomes
vacant between general elections
A seat becomes vacant during the lifetime of a Parliament either when an
MP resigns from Parliament, for example to take up a job which by law
cannot be done by an MP, or because an MP has died. The law also allows
a seat to be declared vacant because of a Member's bankruptcy, mental
illness or conviction for a serious criminal offence.
http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/by-elections/