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Case Study: Gypsy and Traveller Sites

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1 - Introduction

The rights of Gypsies and Travellers, while ostensibly enshrined in equalities

legislation, are rarely upheld or supported in practise (Diacon et al, 2007). In particular, the

right to pursue their nomadic way of life is perceived as being eroded by government policy:

“We haven’t asked anybody to change their ways, why should they ask us to change ours,

and that’s what the Government’s trying to do.”: Jimmy, age 21 (Van Cleemput, 2008, p.107)

This case study begins by providing an overview of UK government policy regarding

Gypsies and Travellers. The government’s own research confirms that action was necessary

to address the severe shortage of Gypsy and Traveller sites (Viner, 2003); a shortage that

has led to high levels of homelessness and tension between communities. Nonetheless, this

study shows that successive governments have either weakened the existing legislation, or

failed to make the necessary changes to resolve these problems.

This study examines the role of the print media in impeding a progressive policy

change in 2004. Section 3 outlines a number of theories from the literature about media

influence on policy. In section 4, the media coverage of this issue is found to be

overwhelmingly hostile towards the prospect of more Gypsy and Traveller sites and, while a

link between the media and policy cannot be conclusively proven, the eventual lack of

legislative progress lends support to existing theories of contingent media power.

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2 - Context

The definition of exactly who belongs to the Gypsy and Traveller community is

disputed (Diacon et al, 2007). We can, however, find a working definition from legal

sources: the 1968 Caravan Sites Act states that "Gypsy" means "persons of nomadic habit of

life, whatever their race or origin” and I shall use the term “Gypsies and Travellers” here to

encompass all these groups. There are a wide range of estimates of the number of Gypsies

and Travellers living in Britain, with estimates ranging from 90,000 to 300,000 (Diacon et al,

2007). Coxhead (2007) notes that open hostility towards Gypsies and Travellers remains the

“last bastion of racism”. As I shall explain below, this is arguably both a cause and effect of

Gypsy and Traveller sites policy.

Though often defined by their nomadic lifestyle, an increasing number of Britain’s

Gypsies and Travellers are settling in ‘bricks and mortar’ housing (Van Cleemput, 2008).

Much of this shift is attributed to government policy: “inability to obtain planning

permission for private caravan sites… frequent evictions from unauthorised camping sites”

(p.104). Indeed, a 2003 government report found a shortage of 3000-4500 caravan pitches

(Viner, 2003). This has led to 21% of Gypsy and Traveller caravans being parked on

unauthorised sites, rendering 1 in 5 families effectively homeless (Diacon et al).

Unauthorised sites often lead to serious conflict between Gypsies and Travellers and the

settled community (Diacon et al). Furthermore, the poor environmental standards of

unauthorised encampments lead to drastically reduced physical and psychological health

outcomes for those living there (Van Cleemput).

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We can trace some of the major policy developments that led to this shortage of

authorised sites. Part 2 of the Caravan Sites Act 1968, imposed a duty on local authorities to

provide accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers. Indeed, the majority of authorised sites

still in existence today were established when councils had this duty (Diacon et al).

However, this statutory duty was repealed by the Conservative government in 1994, and

few authorised sites have since been developed (Diacon et al).

In 2003, the Labour government began consultation on the new Housing Bill. Tension

between the travelling and settled community was running high, exemplified by the burning

of a Gypsy caravan effigy in Sussex (Townsend, 2003). A report by John Prescott’s Office of

the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) confirmed that the repeal of the statutory duty had

resulted in a lack of sites, and that many thought its reinstatement was necessary (Viner,

2003). This argument was bolstered when 118 MPs signed an Early Day Motion in

November 2003 calling for a new statutory duty, supported by various NGOs and unions

(McNamara, 2003). This call to force councils to act was also raised in October 2004 by the

cross-party ODPM Select Committee (House of Commons, 2004). However 2004 also saw

the rise of local community groups campaigning against the establishment of Gypsy and

Traveller sites, such as ‘Middle England in Revolt’, of Cottenham (Lusher, 2004).

The government ultimately refused to reintroduce the statutory duty in the Housing

Act of November 2004. The decision not to reintroduce this duty appears to be a critical

missed opportunity. This case study will examine the influence that print media had on this

policy decision.

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3 – Existing Literature

There is an inherent difficulty in establishing the extent of the media’s influence on a

particular policy decision; we cannot re-run history to determine how a policy might have

developed in a vacuum of media absence (Elmelund-Præstekær and Wien, 2008). This is

perhaps one reason why there are such contradictory conclusions reached in answer to

questions of media influence on policy (Walgrave and Van Aelst, 2006). Nonetheless, the

literature provides a number of theories which I shall summarise here and, in section 4,

relate to this particular case.

Mccombs et al (1997) propose that the audience’s attention can be drawn by the

media towards certain attributes of an issue, and away from others, thus determining how

an issue is thought about. Various theoretical concepts can be shown to affect this level of

agenda setting, and I shall summarise three of these. Firstly, framing is essentially a process

of selection and salience (Entmann, 1993). This process results in the promotion of “a

particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment

recommendation” (Entman 1993, p.53). A second concept within agenda setting is priming,

which states that the media can influence an audience to trigger related thoughts in

response to an issue through the psychological mechanism of associative memory networks

(Pan and Kosicki, 1997). Domke et al (1998) propose that by altering the moral values

associated with a political conflict, the media can manipulate the ethical evaluation of a said

issue. Thirdly, and also grounded in theories of cognitive psychology, is the concept of

stereotyping, described by Rahn (1993) as a heuristic employed by humans to simplify a

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complex world. Zhu (2007) states that there is a significant interaction between media

stereotypes of ethnic groups and public opinion.

Nonetheless, while theories of agenda setting are relatively well documented, it

remains difficult to answer the question under what circumstances the media is able to

affect the political agenda (Walgrave and Aelst, 2006). Walgrave and Aelst developed a

preliminary theory of contingency to address this, setting out a model of the variables

affecting the media’s agenda setting power. One of these contingent factors is the focus of

all media outlets, framing the issue in a consonant manner. As this level of congruence

rarely occurs with much persistence, Walgrave and Aelst state that the media is most

powerful in crises, where spectacular “focusing events” can pressure politicians to act

quickly. This model of contingency can be expanded by Robinson’s (2000) theory, that

media influence increases where there is policy uncertainty; that is, “when the executive has

no policy with regard to an issue or when policy makers are divided” (p.2). The model

proposes a system for grading outcomes as either symbolic, defined as merely rhetorical, or

substantial, with tangible changes to policy (Walgrave and Aelst).

Theories particular to protest movements might also assist the analysis of our policy.

First, Milne (2005) examines the media’s championing of single issue protests and their

impact on policy, which is most powerful when “resisting attempts by government to

change the status quo” (p.47). The examples studied (Section 28, the Countryside Alliance

and the fuel protests) demonstrate the rise of direct action from the right-wing and media

support for this. Secondly, in a study of local newspapers, Oliver and Maney (2000) found

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that local media tends to give far greater coverage to events of conflict or protest than

other events of comparable size.

While theories of media influence may diverge or even contradict one another, the

literature is relatively conclusive that the belief in the power of the media is a large element

of what makes media powerful (Schudson, 1996). Indeed, it was only in one of his final

speeches as Prime Minister, and only after courting “media barons”, that Tony Blair

recognised he had overestimated the power of the media (Seaton, 2007). With this theory

in mind, section 4 examines how influential the media were in preventing the Blair

government from reintroducing the statutory duty.

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4 - Analysis of this case

I shall focus here on the 12 month period between Early Day Motion 79, in November

2003, which called for the reintroduction of the statutory duty, and November 2004 when

the eventual Housing Act gained royal assent. Milne (2005) suggests that the media is

powerful when resisting changes to the status quo. As the statutory duty was not

introduced this could perhaps be viewed as a substantial impediment, based on the

substantial/symbolic concept of Walgrave and Aelst (2006). Here, we can examine to what

extent the print media had a role in this resistance to change.

Without the resources to conduct content analysis for thousands of articles, the

Newsbank database was used to search *“Gypsy” OR “Gipsy”+ AND *“planning”+ to help

focus the search on housing and planning policy:

Figure 1:

Year Number of UK newspaper articles

2001 140

2002 119

2003 151

2004 501

Figure 1 shows a striking increase, between 2003 and 2004, of over 230%. This

suggests that the issue gained prominence in 2004. There are also differences in levels of

coverage between different newspaper titles.

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Figure 2 shows the “Gypsy/Gipsy/Planning” search once again, this time recording the

results for the 6 newspapers with the highest number of articles in 2004:

Figure 2:

Newspaper Total articles 2003

Total articles 2004

The Express (tabloid) 7 86

Daily Mail (tabloid) 15 57

Tabloid average 11 72

Western Daily Press (local)

12 79

Coventry Telegraph (local) 17 36

Local average 15 58

The Times (broadsheet) 15 32

The Guardian (broadsheet)

11 27

Broadsheet average 13 35

(Averages rounded to the nearest whole digit)

In 2003, the averages for each newspaper format showed that broadsheets (13) had a

similar level of coverage to local (15) and tabloid (11) sources. In 2004, tabloid coverage

soars (72) along with local coverage (58), but broadsheet coverage is less than half the

tabloid level (35). These findings can be related to the literature. Richardson (2006) found

that broadsheet newspapers such as The Guardian tend to give positive coverage to Gypsies

and Travellers, focussing on a lack of site provision and discrimination. On the other hand,

Richardson cites examples of tabloid and local papers providing mainly negative coverage.

While by no means scientific, these results suggest that there was a large increase in the

negative reporting of local and tabloid papers in 2004.

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Aside from this quantitative analysis, we can also find qualitative evidence from

individual articles. According to Jempson (2007), Gypsies and Travellers tend to make the

national headlines when a local incident is reported to have national repercussions. We can

find an example of this type of headline in tabloids, reporting about one site in

Warwickshire: “HELL OF GYPSY INVASION” (The Express on Sunday, 04/07/2004). Headlines

such as this demonstrate Walgrave and Aelst’s concept of “focusing events”, therefore this

portrayal of incidents as crises may have increased the media’s influence. Local newspaper

coverage, specifically, can also be linked to the theory of Oliver and Maney (2000), that local

media gives greater cover age to conflict. This is demonstrated by frequent local media

headlines that make reference to “wars” or “battles”: “£100,000 damage in gypsy war”

(Western Daily Press, 01/09/2004) and “Court ruling blow to village's gypsy battle” (Western

Daily Press, 02/10/2004).

It is clear that Gypsy and Traveller housing issues are framed in various different ways.

As Pan and Kosicki suggest, the repeated emphasis of certain frames might “prime” the

audience, or policy makers, to consider related thoughts. I have identified examples of 6

frames, which are frequently used to report on Gypsy and Traveller issues:

Positive frame 1 – Gypsies and Travellers are unfairly discriminated against:

“Gypsy paid damages for discrimination”: (The Independent, 05/06/2004)

Positive frame 2 – Need for more sites:

“Action over the lack of legal sites for Travellers and Gypsies would be the most

effective way of reducing tensions”: (The Guardian, 20/01/2004)

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Negative frame 1 – Gypsies and Travellers as unwelcome immigrants:

“We cannot cope with EU gipsy invasion”: (The Sun, 21/01/2004)

Negative frame 2 – Gypsies and Travellers taking benefits:

“Already here. . . the gipsies you pay for”: (The Express, 21/01/2004)

Negative frame 3 –John Prescott is on the side of Gypsies and Travellers:

“In Prescott country, only the gypsies win”: (Sunday Times, 08/08/2004)

Negative frame 4 – Conflict with villagers/“middle England”:

“Villagers want travellers to go”: (Leicester Mercury, 27/08/2004)

By circulation figures, the newspapers carrying positive frames are dwarfed by those

national papers carrying negative frames (Greenslade, 2005). Negative frames 1 and 2, in

particular, provide examples of media stereotyping as outlined in section 3. Indeed, this

exemplifies the negative, discriminatory discourse that Gypsies and Travellers are often

subject to (Richardson, 2006). The influence of the media in this regard is significant; a poll

by MORI (2003) found that newspapers and television were the top influences on those with

negative perceptions of Gypsies and Travellers.

Negative frame 3 demonstrates the framing of the issue as personal to John Prescott.

Norris et al (2003) state that personification is frequently used to simplify a conflict for an

audience. Negative frame 4 exemplifies the championing of middle-class protest, as

reported by Milne (2005). Indeed, anti-Gypsy groups such as Middle England in Revolt were

championed as an “inspiration” by newspaper reports (e.g. Lusher, 2004), and it is arguable

that these actors’ credibility, and perhaps their policy influence, were boosted by positive

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reporting. On the other hand, the newspaper coverage of Gypsy and Traveller rights

campaigners was largely negative: Maggie Smith-Bendall was described as “shameless” (in

“The gypsies ' champion” – Western Daily Press, 29/10/2004) and as the “leader behind

militant new tactics which have brought misery to villagers” (in “Groups led by 'Gypsy

Queen'” – The Express, 09/11/2004).

Hepp (2010) makes the case for avoiding a media-centric approach and, indeed, it is

vital to consider the influence of other actors, such as these campaign groups above.

However if, as Robinson (2000) proposes, media influence increases where there is policy

uncertainty, the media were in a position of power here; in 2003, the ODPM itself

acknowledged that “There is no clear, widely understood national policy towards

accommodation for Gypsies and other Travellers”.

Lastly, it has been noted that Tony Blair’s belief in the power of media might have

boosted its influence on his government’s policy. In this case, Blair courted the media with

hard-line rhetoric, earning him headlines such as: “Blair's vow to halt gypsy invasions of our

villages” (Western Daily Press, 05/11/2004). It is likely that Blair feared those negative

headlines about his government being “soft”, that reintroducing the statutory duty may

have elicited.

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5 - Conclusions

As noted in section 2, it is difficult to quantify the extent of media influence on any

given issue. However, the various contingencies theorised by the literature to produce

larger media effects are in evidence here. This case study lends support to existing

hypotheses, and it would be difficult to argue that the media had no influence on the

resulting lack of progress.

Beyond the scope of this case study, there were dramatic developments in 2005, the

year of the general election. The Sun launched a highly controversial campaign (“STAMP ON

THE CAMPS”: The Sun, 09/03/2005), and Michael Howard put an anti-Gypsy agenda at the

centre of his Conservative election campaign (“Howard stirs race row with attack on

Gypsies”: The Independent, 20/03/2005). It would require further research to determine

the longer term effects of these campaigns and their media coverage. Much of the policy in

question is implicit in planning permission decisions, rather than in explicit policy changes.

For example, a highly-publicised appeal by residents of an unauthorised camp in Cottenham

was refused in the midst of these campaigns (“Cottenham travellers lose appeal”: BBC News,

11/03/2005).

Concerns remain that the media fuels discrimination of Gypsies and Travellers. The

popular Channel 4 series, “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding” has been criticised for whipping up

hate (Horne, 2011). Negative headlines persist in the print media (“French cash call 'to fight

gypsy plague'”: The Sun, 22/09/2010) and, even if the media’s influence on policy is

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anticipatory (Schudson, 1996), the reinforcement of racial stereotypes needs challenging. In

this case, it is certainly credible that the negative coverage helped widen the gulf between

the government’s knowledge of the Gypsy and Traveller sites problem and their ultimate

decision to do very little about it.

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