The object of this dissertation is to study how the British Press has performed its Fourth Estate role in covering the Mark Duggan case. Mark Duggan was shot dead by a police officer in an ‘hard-stop’ operation in August 2011. His killing was, some argue, what sparked the riots which turned some deprived neighbourhood across the country in battlefields. To analyse how has the press performed its Fourth Estate role in reporting this case, the coverage has been analysed with the concepts of primary and secondary definers elaborated by Hall et al. in their ground-breaking book Policing the Crisis (1978). The analysis of the coverage revealed a fundamental bias of the majority of the British press towards the police, this was done through a marked use of anonymous police sources and through a “framing” of the image of Duggan, which was already evident soon after his death and did not change in the three years since. This study is significant because the Mark Duggan case is a vehicle through which it is possible to see how the press does not offer a fair representation to members of the ethnic minority communities in the press, especially if they have minor criminal convictions as in the case of Mr Duggan. Furthermore, it represents a failure of the idea of the press as a Fourth Estate, because throughout the coverage it is clear how the press never questioned or challenged a powerful institution of our society like the police, despite the contradictions which emerged during the inquest into Mr Duggan’s death. Despite the thirty-six years since its publication, Policing the Crisis, still proves to be correct in its finding of the press as reinforcing instead of challenging the status quo therefore not fulfilling its Fourth Estate role.

Radio interview with Robert Nickelsberg, a Time contracted photojournalist who documented 30 years of Afghan history from the Soviet withdrawal right up until the US-led coalition withdrawal.

Arts London News meet Jude Cowan Montague, an artist who, after having completed her MA in Printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts in 2013, has just been awarded with the Gwen May RE Prize from the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. As I begin to talk with Montague over a hot cup of tea, I’m struck by the amount of things in which she is interested in, from politics to music, to art and her love of animals, Montague is as eclectic as an artist gets.

Panorama conducted a one-year undercover investigation that showed how, for a fee up to £500 (three times the normal rate), students with poor English skills were able to pass language tests easily and remain in the country to work illegally. The programme uncovered the methods of fraud in some centres certified by ETS, one of the largest language test firms in the world, who set the exams but do not appoint the invigilators. The fraud consists of cheating both tests that the students have to

As I walk towards the Macbeth in Hoxton under classic London weather, in which the autumn is already showing some winter under its clothes, I ask myself why, why did I decide to leave the warm and comfort of my sofa? Why did I decide to leave it and go out on the day of the dead – or as the Mexicans call it ‘Dia de Muertos’ – to see the Growlers in this last-minute gig, organised by Bad Vibrations in collaboration with The Island. I mumble these questions to myself as I enter the venue with the

LCC’s Anders Birger and his photo reporting on the havoc caused by the Syrian conflict is our news feature this week (November 8, 2013). It is in the rubble of destroyed buildings, the aftermath of bomb explosions that shatter entire neighbourhoods, and their entire communities torn apart by a conflict, that a war correspondent operates. It is in these situations, in which it is often impossible to have clear cut ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’, that war correspondents gather the information and interviews that will end up in their reports. Despite more instruments available, several war correspondents have acknowledged the increasing risk compared to before, of walking into a battlefield and being chosen as a legitimate target by those who considers journalist to be undermining their war effort (sometimes telling the truth is enough to do that). (Pictures by Anders Bierger)

Butcher’s Hook is a magazine project developed in collaboration with other trainee journalists from my BA course in Journalism. The idea behind Butcher’s Hook was to develop a magazine that offered a more serious approach than what would normally be expected from a student-led publication. Covering politics, music and art we attempted to deal with subjects other publications for young people seemed to avoid and to offer a fresh perspective for our readership to relate to. Ultimately we wanted Butcher's Hook to be interesting, new and thought-provoking.