Nations and Nationalism 12 (3), 2006, 473492.

Reading between the lines: national

identity and attitudes to the media
in Scotlandn
RICHARD KIELYnn, DAVID McCRONEnn
and FRANK BECHHOFERnnn
The Institute of Governance, University of Edinburgh, Chisholm House, High
School Yards, Edinburgh EH1 1LZ, United Kingdom
nnn
Research Centre for Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Old Surgeons
Hall, High School Yards, Edinburgh EH1 1LZ, United Kingdom
nn

ABSTRACT. The relationship between national identity and how people perceive and
consume media is a central but largely untested assumption of studies of nationalism.
Using a previously developed classication of identity among English migrants to
Scotland, this paper explores associations between how people use the media and how
they make sense of their national identity. Compared with Scottish nationals, who tend
to adopt a more taken-for-granted and uncontentious view of the media, except when
they feel that the media presented to them challenge their sense of identity, English
migrants nd that the agendas of the media in Scotland differ from those they are used to
south of the border. Specically, how they view the media tends to vary according to
whether they view themselves as English, British or as becoming Scottish.

Introduction
The relationship between national identity and how people perceive and
consume print and broadcast media is one of the central but largely untested
assumptions of studies of nationalism. Newspapers have long been seen as
binding people into national political and cultural agendas, thereby helping
to create and sustain a strong sense of national identity. Renans celebrated
denition of France as un ensemble didees (in Bhabha 1990: 12) depended on
This paper is the product of a collegiate form of writing in which the eldwork, the analysis and
the drafts of the paper have been discussed by the research team throughout. The rst-named
author has been responsible for initially drafting the paper and seeing it into print. The others are
in random order. We are indebted to Susan Condor, John MacInnes, Pille Petersoo and Michael
Rosie for extensive comments on earlier drafts helping to clarify our thoughts and the argument,
as well as the anonymous referees for the journal. We remain solely responsible for the
interpretation of these data and any errors remaining are our own.

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Richard Kiely, David McCrone and Frank Bechhofer

translating such ideas into the currency of popular citizenship so as to make

peasants into Frenchmen, as Eugene Weber put it (Weber 1977). A crucial
medium for so doing was the national press, particularly le papier qui parle
(McCrone 1998:46). One might then expect a relationship between how
people dene themselves as nationals and the media they consume; that
being, for example, French, German, British is reinforced by media representations of what it is to be national, and that people will favour those parts
of the media consonant with their own ideas of what it is to be French,
German and British.
In a critical review of such assumptions, Philip Schlesinger has argued that:
In everyday political life it is still generally assumed that the United Kingdom is a
bounded, sovereign polity, with its own national political agenda, communicated by its
own national media. This dominant view of relations between national political space
and national communicative space is still supported by a well established perspective
in the theory of nationalism, which needs to be revised and is beginning to be so
(1998: 55).

Schlesingers interest in these matters derives from the twin pressures on the
nation-state from above the process of Europeanisation and from below
pressure from sub-state stateless nations such as Scotland and Catalonia,
territories with sufciently distinctive public spheres, to challenge the communicative supremacy of existing states. In short, three frequently competing
levels of communicative space have emerged: the supra-national (e.g. EU), the
state-national (e.g. UK) and the sub-state national (e.g. Scotland). We focus
here on the third of these.
Schlesingers critique of the supposed relationship between media and
national identity in the UK is part of a broader assessment of the relationship
between nation and communicative space (Schlesinger 2000). He comments:
Consciously or unconsciously social communication thinking is an expression of the cultural geography of the nation-state in a world of sovereign
states (2000: 99). He traces much of this association back to Karl Deutschs
book Nationalism and Social Communication (1953), in which nationality
becomes a function of communicative competence and belonging, in large
measure both mutually reinforcing. Although Gellners classic study Nations
and Nationalism (1983) did not forefront the role of the media as both
expression and cause of national identication, Schlesinger sees his modernist account of the relationship between industrialisation and nationalism as
adopting a quintessentially Deutschian view of social communication. He
observes: Media are boundary markers, intimately related to the political
roof that caps a culture and makes it into a nation-state. It is their function
in sustaining a political community that is of prime interest for Gellner, and it
is therefore not a problem to think of them as univocal (2000: 104).
This internalist account of media-national identity relations runs through
the work not only of Deutsch and Gellner, but also, in Schlesingers view, of
Benedict Anderson (1983) and Michael Billig (1995). While Anderson was
mainly interested in the written press, he shares Deutschs view that the social
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475

communication framework is the crucial factor in making nationals. Billigs

interest in the implicit banal form of nationalism also reects an
assumption that nations are held together from within. In Schlesingers words:
All of the above theories share a notion of the prototypically modern i.e. national
communicative community as strongly bounded. Deutschs work emphasises the
communicative gaps between peoples, this being the dark side of relatively cosy
insider efciency and complementarity. Gellner and Anderson, too, stress the role of a
common culture based in standardized language and cultural institutions in making a
common people; whereas Billig underscores the often unnoticed daily agging of a
common identity (2000: 106).

Such assumptions are also found in the early theorising of Jurgen Habermas
on communicative space (1989), which remained within an internalist
account. In his later thinking (1994), the public sphere is much more
unbounded, and less tied to the national frame.
The Scottish case
Scotland provides an interesting test-case for assumptions about the relationships between identity and media consumption, because a vibrant and
distinctive Scottish press and broadcasting exists alongside the media based
in London and dominant in the UK as a whole. The press is highly
competitive, and changes in printing technology have opened up opportunities for Fleet Street newspapers to put a kilt on their Scottish editions. Some,
like The Guardian and The Independent, carry minimal Scottish content, while
others such as The Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Express put Scottish in their
titles and make substantial editorial changes accordingly (Rosie et al. 2004).
Almost fteen years ago, with a Scottish focus, Schlesinger (1991: 307) called
for a reassessment of the relationship between media and collective identities,
arguing that the linkages had yet to be demonstrated. A decade later Law (2001)
again raised the issue. Yet there is still relatively little systematic research into this
relationship. In Scotland, the work of Rosie et al. (2004) and Petersoo (forthcoming) on newspaper production and content, together with the historical
analysis of Connell (2003), and the research by Higgins (2004) on locational
tokens and news discourse in Scottish papers has begun to rectify this.
One cannot assume that the media produced in Britain impact in the same
way on how people north and south of the border construe their territorial
identities. Colleagues involved in the Leverhulme programme of research1 not
only question the strength of straightforward relationships between media
and national identity, but Rosie et al. have persuasively attacked the concept
of a British national press and thus a unied British communicative space.
They observe:
The distribution of titles and their spatial editions and the different patterns of ags2
found in them make the category of British press of limited analytical or theoretical
use. Readers in England and Scotland buy papers with substantially different patterns
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Richard Kiely, David McCrone and Frank Bechhofer

of ags. In Scotland, there is a clear relationship between the concentration of

circulation and preponderance of Scottish ags. Conversely in England, British ags
predominate over English ones . . . Insofar as home news can be identied via the
explicit location of stories, it seems to be predominantly and explicitly Scottish in
papers sold there, and predominantly and implicitly English in those sold in England
(2004: 455).

This raises a number of questions:

 How do people born in Scotland in our term, Scottish nationals relate
who they are to what they read, hear on radio or view on TV?
 Indeed, is there any relationship at all between the two?
 Do those with a strong sense of being Scottish read the Scottish-based
press, whereas those dening themselves as British read the London-based
press?
 What kind of relationship do people born in England who migrate to
Scotland have to the media?
 Do they, for example, prefer the media of their country of origin to the one
they encounter in Scotland?

Methodology
Our data comes from the Scottish part of a qualitative study in both England
and Scotland based on repeated interviews with panels of respondents. The
panel composition, more common in quantitative studies, has been critical. In
Scotland we recruited Scottish nationals, people born and still living in
Scotland, as well as English migrants, people born in England but now living
in Scotland, with a length of residence ranging between one and sixty years.
These are operational, not theoretical, denitions that we have used for many
years, albeit the focus on birth as a key criterion also has the merit of being the
one which most people take for granted as dening nationality (McCrone
2001:173). The interview extracts used here come primarily from the rst wave
of interviews in 2001, shortly after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament,3 when we interviewed seventy-two migrants and sixty nationals, recruited
in two distinctive contexts the large urban centre of Glasgow, and in and
around a small town in rural Perthshire. The second round of interviews was
carried out in 2002/03 and a shortened third round was conducted in 2004. The
majority of nationals and a minority of migrants were chosen at random from
the Electoral Register. Most migrants came via associational and occupational
groups, advertising in the local media and from those already interviewed.
The topic-driven, conversational interviews lasted, on average, 1.5 hours;
and were tape-recorded, transcribed and entered into Hypersoft a computer
package that aids qualitative analysis. We followed a procedure of repeated
reading, and tagging extracts that highlighted a particular issue. The extracts
have been examined to agree on their interpretation and so as not to do the
respondent an injustice. The analysis was strengthened by systematically
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477

searching for counter-examples: respondents whom we may have expected to

express a particular view, but who did not, or those who we may have
expected to disagree, but did not. We discussed a wide range of topics with
respondents, primarily around questions of local, national and state identity
varying the contexts both for themselves and others as well as discussing
issues relating directly to constitutional change.
In a recent article (Kiely et al. 2005a) we examined, using these data, how
Britishness is construed in quite different ways by those born and living in
Scotland, and by those born in England but now living in Scotland. We
showed how one accepted survey measurement of national identity, the
Moreno question,4 is limited because the data cannot provide information
on what people mean by the categories, and what sort of decision-making
process they use in choosing one category over another. Britishness is
problematic for many Scots as they perceive that it is often used as a synonym
for Englishness. We were able to show that those who choose Scottish, not
British or More Scottish than British in the Moreno question see Britishness
differently from those who choose Equally Scottish and British, or More
British than Scottish.
We also examined what happens to the identity claims of people born in
England when they come to Scotland as migrants and interact primarily with
Scots, and their generally different understandings of what it means to be
British. Many come to reassess their identity claims, especially with regard to
being British, in order to accommodate the different identity registers in
Scotland. They tend to adopt one of three identity strategies, that is to say, a
repertoire of responses and behaviours that reconcile their own sense of national
identity with both the context in which they nd themselves and the responses of
others to the identity claims they may make. The three strategies are:
 more actively claiming their Englishness;
 attempting to advance a more acceptable/inclusive form of British claim in
Scotland;
 espousing a claim to being Scottish, based on belonging to and identifying
with the society.
People born in Scotland (in our terms Scottish nationals) who prioritised their
Scottishness were negative or at best neutral towards British identity, with a
strong sense that it felt less relevant to them than their Scottish identity. They
treated being British as either a synonym for being English, an identication
with an imperial past or simply a fact of form-lling, such as having a British
passport. On the other hand, Scottish nationals who subscribe to a stronger
sense of Britishness (in terms of identity categories, either Equally Scottish
and British, or More British than Scottish5) provided a markedly different
account of Britishness one that included a strong political sense of
Britishness, celebrating past glories of Great Britains achievements, or
one that emphasised shared cultural elements across Britain such as those
centred around the monarchy, pageantry and traditions. This paper uses this
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Richard Kiely, David McCrone and Frank Bechhofer

classication of identity categories to question views about the relationship

between national identity and media consumption described earlier.6
Surveys show that the relationship between identity and the newspapers
people read is not clear-cut in Scotland (see Table 1). Should we then reject
totally the earlier works mentioned above, like Rosie et al. (2004), or suggest
that this relationship cannot be teased out by survey methodology? We take
the latter course. Survey data provide systematic responses that can be
complemented with qualitative data from intensive interviews to tease out
the meanings and intentions behind such responses. Using the classication of
identity strategies outlined above, together with a qualitative methodology,7
reveals associations between media consumption and national identity more
partial and subtle than the theoretical works imply. Media consumption can
play an important part in the process of acculturation or assimilation for
migrants. One can learn a great deal about being, say, Scottish by reading
texts about Scots.8 Texts may become more comprehensible and attractive
because one is coming to identify with and do the things that Scots do,
although not all English migrants wish to follow this path. Many renegotiate
their national identity, and the majority of them seem to bring their understandings of the media into kilter with their identity strategy.
The national frame of reference invoked may depend on the topic
discussed, where the media are produced and how they are aimed at the
audience. On occasions, the national frame of reference used in newspapers,
radio or television may be unclear or ambiguous. Rosie et al. (2004: 443) and
Petersoo (forthcoming) demonstrate the presence and use of deictic terms in
newspapers, such as we, us, here and the nation, and how these carry
deliberately ambiguous meaning(s) in respect of national frames of reference.
Discussing a particular piece of writing, Rosie et al. make this general point:
The articles author was able to shift between quite distinct potentially and explicitly
national contexts using the same deictic terms. The nation could shift from Scotland, to
the UK and even the empire (and possibly beyond) within a single sentence . . . The
wandering we need not arise through sloppy journalistic standards or confusion, but
may be an essential aspect of the way the constitutional order in the UK is maintained
via a constructive ambiguity about spatial categories relevant to nation or state. In this
particular example the rhetorical strategy works because the author seems to assume that
readers will feel at ease shifting between a Scottish and a British context (2004: 4534).

The English/British abroad

There is a growing literature on how English-born (and British-born)
migrants come to terms with living in another (seemingly familiar) country.
This is not a new phenomenon as settler societies within the British Empire
were populated by people from these islands for at least 150 years (Pearson
2002). Studies of English-born immigrants in Canada and Australia in the
twentieth century tell a similar tale of ambivalence, implicitness and even
confusion as regards national identity. In her study of English immigrants in
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479

Ontario, Canada, Greenhill observes: Culture shock is magnied by the fact

that most English people do not expect to nd Canada in any way divergent
from their home country (Greenhill 1992: 259). In a similar vein, reviewing
the English in Australia, Jupp comments: The largest, overseas-born ethnic
group is now, and has since 1788 always been, English, most of whom would
reserve the word ethnic for others (Jupp 2004: 1). Only in recent years, with
the emergence of the ofcial policy of multiculturalism in Australia, have
British migrants felt the need to undergo a process of self-ethnicisation
(Stratton 2000). When this has happened, as in the United Kingdom Settlers
Association (UKSA) or The English in Australia (TEA), it has taken an
elderly, conservative and (a)political form that celebrates the Union Jack, the
Royal Family, the police, the military and early medieval history. No
working-class values or symbols are evoked, and, as Wills and Darian-Smith
observe: there aint no black in the Union Jack; there isnt even Britpop
or Cool Britannia (2004: 10). It is difcult to distinguish precisely what is
English rather than British in these manifestations, though in Australia and
Canada the Scots, Welsh and Irish have other cultural vehicles at their
disposal (Greenhill 1992; Wills and Darian-Smith 2004).
Studies of English-born migrants to Scotland also suggest that they are an
invisible minority. The eight per cent of Scotlands population born in
England (over 400,000 people) are largely socially invisible in terms of
ethnicity, religion, family and social networks, and social class (Watson
2003). Watson comments:
For most of the twentieth century the English have out numbered all other migrant
communities and . . . formed the most signicant migrant group in modern Scottish
history. The main difference was the heterogeneous nature of the English compared
with the homogeneity of others . . . They tended not to live, work and pray together.
Their diversity and pervasive spread throughout Scotland meant that they did not live
and work within more traditional migrant communities or ghettoes. And, because
they were similar in many respects to Scots, they merged into society and were,
relatively speaking, invisible. The only signicant area where the English stood out
was through their speech (2003: 101).

Studying English migrant identities in Scotland, Findlay et al. nd diverse

self-perceptions such that the experience of living in Scotland does not seem
to have given the English in urban Scotland any sense of a shared collectivity,
but our results suggest that they feel, to some extent, that the Scots have
imposed a collective identity upon them (Findlay et al. 2004: 76).
Reading newspapers
Here we compare and contrast how Scottish nationals (people born in
Scotland) and English migrants (people born in England) use the media and
make sense of their national identity. Table 1 presents some straightforward
data on newspaper readership in Scotland. It shows a clear but weak relationship between claimed newspaper readership and preferred national identity.
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Richard Kiely, David McCrone and Frank Bechhofer

Table 1. National identity by newspaper readership9

% by column
Identity group
Fleet St broadsheets
Fleet St tabloids
Record/Scottish Mirror
Scottish broadsheets
Unweighted base

Prioritise
Scottish

Equally
Scottish/British

Prioritise
British

Other/
None/DK

3
30
44
24
2462

8
30
34
28
866

19
30
21
30
239

32
28
16
25
104

Source: Scottish Social Attitudes surveys, 1999200310

Notes:
1. Fleet St broadsheets are the Telegraph, Guardian, Times and Independent. Fleet St
tabloids are the Scottish Daily Express, the Scottish Daily Mail, the Daily Star of
Scotland and the Scottish Sun.11 Scottish broadsheets are the Herald, the Scotsman, the
(Dundee) Courier and the (Aberdeen) Press and Journal. We recognise that Fleet St as
such no longer exists, but the term still conveys the production base of UK newspapers.
2. A small number of respondents (seventy-four) who read other papers have been
excluded from this analysis.
3. Though different newspapers, the Record and Scottish Mirror are combined because
in the Scottish Social Attitudes surveys prior to 2003 they were coded under a single
value, possibly because of an erroneous belief that The Record was the Mirror in
Scotland. However, the data for 2003, where the two can be disaggregated, strongly
suggest the category consists primarily of Record readers; in 2003 there were 305 such
along with twenty-four Scottish Mirror readers.

The Scottish versions of the Fleet Street tabloids are read by thirty per cent
of each identity category, and between twenty-four and thirty per cent read the
Scottish broadsheets. Readership of the Fleet Street broadsheets increases as
one moves across the identity categories towards those prioritising their British
identity, with the reverse pattern among those reading the Record/Mirror. Our
data comes from neither a random sample nor a survey, but from a crude count
that forms an interesting starting point. Scottish nationals in our sample fall into
three identity groupings. Of the Scottish, not British (fteen in all), ve read no
newspaper, and the remainder all read some Scottish press (100 per cent).12
Among the more Scottish than British (twenty-ve), one-third read none, and
of the remainder, twelve (seventy per cent) read some Scottish press. Finally, of
the sixteen equally Scottish and British, or More British than Scottish one
reads none, and nine (sixty per cent) read some Scottish press. Although the
numbers are small the percentage trend is in the direction expected (100; 70; 60).
This is the beginning of our story, not its end.
Scottish nationals
Most Scottish nationals read the Scottish press. They do so in a matter-of-fact
way, reecting Bourdieus habitus, the long-lasting dispositions of the mind
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and body which naturalise peoples understanding of their social world (see
McCrone 2005). They choose what they listen to, read,13 and watch for
reasons unconnected to their sense of Scottishness but based on habit, such as
preferring local news14 and sports coverage.
Despite this, Scottish nationals do take exception when something in the
media challenges their sense of identity. Here are two contrasting examples.
The rst respondent accuses the UK media of being anglocentric, contrasting
the relatively low-key coverage of ooding in Edinburgh by the news and
current affairs programme Scotland Today, with the UK-wide coverage of a
similar occurrence in England by the London-based English media:
GN01:15 Take the ooding in the south, for instance. Edinburghs recent ood
situation merited about four column inches and half a breath and half a beat on
Scotland Today . . . It happens in England for the rst time, and it consumes the
media. Now that, in itself, thats infuriating. Thats probably too strong a word but
that is typical of how, because its us, You dont matter because you are who you are
and to be honest with you, we dont care. But we want everyone to care about this. We
think this is national news and you must care and we dont care if you dont care or
not. It will dominate your newspapers and it will dominate your airspace. So you will
all listen.
(Computer Company Manager, aged 46)

Her emphasis on her Scottishness is in line with her perceptions of the

media.
I: We talked a little bit before about the idea of pride in being Scottish, pride in being
British?
GN01: Ive never thought about it because I dont consider it. As I say, I consider
myself rst and foremost Scottish.

The second respondent is a Scottish national who buys The Times and watches
the TV news he feels is most likely to give him the UK perspective. He is
increasingly frustrated by what he sees as the scotticising of UK news in the
Scottish edition of his English-based paper and in the Scottish opt-out
element from his UK television news:
GN16: I actually object to getting the Scottish editions because, all these papers now
come out with Scottish editions as if Scots now somehow are not interested in whats
happening in the whole country as a whole and they give you a bit of it. I object to not
reading the same paper in Glasgow as a guy in London, I want to read the same paper
. . . When youre watching Newsnight16 and suddenly it clips over to bloody Scotland
and you get some third-rate interviewer and it takes up half the bloody programme and
youre watching and you say I dont want to see this. I want to see a national
programme, which is dealing with national issues with guys that are, in spite of
everything, guys who are right on the ball, pressing national gures. (Procurement
Worker, Utilities Company, aged 47)

Like the rst respondent, his identity claims are in line with his media views:
GN16: I think people that put Scottish as a nationality, they tend to be, mmh, we are
British. Thats how were categorised, whether we like it or not . . . The fact is if you
handed me a bit of paper and said write down your nationality, its British. If I put
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Richard Kiely, David McCrone and Frank Bechhofer

Scottish, its the same as somebody down in Cornwall writing Cornish. Its not on,
really, youre British and thats it.

Scottish nationals who give more salience to being British tend to invest it
with more positive and overtly political and pro-British Union meaning. For
example:
On identity:
I: On the issue of whether or not to have a Scottish Parliament in Scotland and I
wondered, at the time of the issue, how you thought of the idea?
PN50: We had very strong views on it. We were very anti-it.
I: Right.
PN50: I think its our mixed background again. We feel British, dont we? We feel, well
me more than you (talking to husband - H) . . . And I feel its a step backwards, cutting
Scotland off.
(Retired Primary School Teacher, aged 56. Husband, Retired Policeman, Aged 55)

On the media:
H: Like with our present situation now, this terrorist thing, now that, to me, we are
British and we are going to stand with whoever, against that kind of thing.
PN50: We heard, on the Scottish News, last night, them saying their opinion of Blair,
his talk yesterday and how it was going to affect us in Scotland and I said to H
(husband) What are they talking about? Were all the same. I just feel sometimes we
cut ourselves off.

Such individuals, however, are a small minority among our Scottish national
respondents, who in general tend to adopt a taken-for-granted, uncontentious
view of the newspapers they read, or the TV news they watch. As our previous
work has shown, their national identity is secure and seldom seriously
questioned, and is not continually renegotiated or called into account and
this is reected in their consumption of and attitudes to the media.

English migrants
Those who come to live in Scotland nd an environment that is different
in many ways from England. While this should not be exaggerated,
they sometimes encounter not outright hostility but a degree of anti-Englishness and opposition to what are seen as English values. This is a
complex area reecting a general attitude to England and the English, often
manifested in joking relationships, but not antagonism to individual English
people.17 Faced with (re)negotiating who they are, English migrants comment
that the agenda of the media in Scotland often differs from that they are used
to in England. We now examine how they come to terms with this.
The following excerpts illustrate four themes that regularly arose in our
English migrants accounts of the Scottish-based media.
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(i) Badging news as Scottish

GM66: Im much more aware of, for example, watching the News or reading the
newspapers, a lot of things are prefaced by Scotland or Scottish issues or Scotland or
something Scottish. A lot of things are prefaced Scottish.
I: How does that, eh, seem to you?
GM66: It does seem strange, because that doesnt . . . well, from my experience, it
doesnt really occur from where Im from. Its not really of relevance, if you know what
I mean. It doesnt really become a relevance to have mentioned it.
I: And yet, here, its something that . . .
GM66: And yet, here, it seems to get into a lot of . . . the word Scotland or Scottish
seems to get into a lot of subjects in terms of the newspapers, especially the newspapers
and that, TV programmes and things.
I: Do you tend to get a particular newspaper or not?
GM66: We used to . . . well I buy The Guardian . . .
I: Something that you wouldnt tend to see, say in The Guardian, the word England or
English?
R: Thats right, yeah. Thats how you notice it, you notice it because of its absence in
other papers or other forms of media.
(2 years at 20,18 Engineering student)

(ii) Using national in a Scottish context

GM28: I got into trouble once referring to The Scotsman as a regional paper or
something like that. (laughs)
I: Was this a colleague at work?
GM28: I think I said Oh yes, but what about the national press? when they said it was
in The Scotsman. They said Oh, that is a national paper . . . Those papers might be
regarded as national papers up here but I would tend not to see them as national
papers.
(16 years at 18, Social Worker)

(iii) Perceiving localism in the Scottish media

GM29: I bought The Herald, I was on the train, it was the day of the train crash, maybe
it wasnt. It was the day of some big news story and The Herald had deemed it t to put
some dull story about some sheep farmers in Scotland and I was thinking that this is a
bit silly.
(2.5 years at 19, Music Student)

This respondent is irritated by what she sees as trivial events receiving undue
prominence in Scotland, something mentioned by more than twice as many
English migrants as Scottish nationals.
(iv) Anglocentrism in the English press
GM21: With English newspapers they tend to have a bit of a blind spot about some
things and make generalisations about the UK when theyre just really talking about
England . . . . I listen to Radio 419 and again, thats Anglo-centric reporting. (8 years at
19, Lawyer)
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Richard Kiely, David McCrone and Frank Bechhofer

This respondents point was commonly made by Scottish nationals but is

made by English migrants more often the longer they live in Scotland.
Being English
We now explore the three identity strategies outlined earlier in order to
illuminate the ways in which English migrants come to terms with living in
Scotland, and how they relate to their use and perceptions of the media. We
observed that English migrants to Scotland often discussed how they had
become more conscious of themselves as English, whereas previously they had
thought of themselves as British, or had espoused an ambiguous British/
English national identity. They commented that Scottish nationals tended to
address them as English rather than British. Here are two examples:
GM41:20 I never used to think of myself as English. I always thought of myself as
British but now I think of myself just as much English as I do British than before I ever
came to Scotland. Ive denitely changed my perspective on that. (9 years at 28, TV
Producer)

Her changing sense of identity is linked to her perception of the media in the
two countries:
GM41: I think in my heart of hearts I consider my home somewhere in England, not
somewhere in Scotland. I cant be specic but its just certain things like I like the fact
that all the papers dont say Scottish version of the Times and stuff. Now which is
really bizarre but I think Im only reacting like that because Ive spent so long with
people ramming down your throat oh this is the Scottish version of this.

Here is another example:

I: Did you feel that you then became more aware of being English when living in
Scotland than you had been . . .?
PM26: I think its forced onto you, yes. Just by little things, not by anything terribly
important. I think possibly it starts when you come up as a young fellow and youre
charged with enthusiasm and ideas from where youve been working and naturally you
keep putting forward viewpoints and youre constantly being knocked back because
youre English . . . I dont think the Scots people take criticism lightly, especially from
an Englishman. (38 years at 30, Retired College Lecturer)

This respondents sense of being English was heightened by comments made

by Scots he worked with. He connects his sense of being English with his views
on the media:
PM26: It surprises me how English I feel sometimes.
I: At particular times?
PM26: I think, possibly since the coming of the Scottish Parliament and the emphasis
we seem to get on the News bulletins and in papers, which are almost parochial to me
. . . I nd a lot of the Scots News bulletins far too parochial so I watch the BBC News,
the general news, and then I tend to drift through reading the paper at the same time.
I: Parochial in what ways particularly?
PM26: I dont know, I often feel theres a general air of weve been hard done by. We
dont have this, we dont have that, that theyve got down south, and it isnt true.
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485

Being British
Some English migrants reassess their perceptions of being British, moving
towards a more inclusive sense of Britishness that incorporates Scotland and
England. For example:
PM52: I think maybe even more so now were living in Scotland, being British is more
inclusive than being English for me. Its easier for me to be British than English
because it summarises the fact that Ive, Im a part of both countries. I couldnt
describe myself as Scottish but obviously Scotland is now important to me. So being
British encapsulates both of those. (7 years at 32, Housewife)

This respondents experience of living in Scotland has strengthened her sense

of Britishness as an inclusive national identity, and how she perceives the
media has changed since she has lived in Scotland. (The excerpt below comes
from her rst interview in 2001):
PM52: You dont realise it when you live in London but when you move out, you
realise that . . . you open up the paper and you would think that everything was
happening within a 20-mile radius of London, really. Thats interesting because my
friends keep saying You should read a Scottish paper, thats your problem. I cant
quite get used to reading a Scottish paper, it isnt quite right (delivered in a mock
English accent) (laughs).

Having moved from London to rural Scotland she now sees a London-based
national paper as both anglo-centric and London-centric. Her new Scottish
friends suggest that if she wants a different point of view she should read a
Scottish newspaper. In her second interview in 2003 she said:
PM52: I get The Times every day but it does have what it calls the Scottish pages, which
are three pages of Scottish news and I keep saying we should buy a Scottish newspaper.
My newsagent keeps saying weve been here long enough now to buy a Scottish
newspaper because she obviously doesnt consider . . . I always assume that the paper is
the same everywhere so I sometimes say to my Dad oh, did you see that thing in the
paper? He says well, it wasnt in my paper. I say it was on page 3. He says well, we
dont get all that Scottish rubbish in our newspapers. (laughs) (9 years at 32)

Two years on, she says that she should buy a Scottish newspaper and regards
the Scottish element as standard. Her fathers dismissal of Scottish affairs
not found within his English-based edition of The Times amuses her but she
appears to rejects his idea of Scottish affairs as rubbish.
English migrants who attempt to combine elements of Englishness and
Scottishness with being British struggle to nd a single newspaper that ts this
perspective, although they could read two newspapers one produced in
Scotland and one in England. Consider three interview excerpts from another
respondent: the rst about his national identity, and the other two about his
problems nding a newspaper that ts well with it. One option (The Guardian)
fails to cover enough Scottish news. His son, who was born in Scotland, wants
him to buy a Scottish newspaper (The Scotsman) but, unusually, he sees it as
carrying too much English news.
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Richard Kiely, David McCrone and Frank Bechhofer

PM43: Well. As I say, I dont look on myself as English, as I perhaps did, thirty, forty
years ago. Em, you know if somebody asks me, you know having lived up in Scotland,
which to me is quite different from England, em and Im happy up here so I now just
look on myself as British, if somebody asks me. British, I nd that a bit better than
saying Im English.
I: Do you know why that is?
PM43: I suppose because Im trying to include England and Scotland. (36 years at 37,
Retired Headmaster)
PM43: My difculty is I wish Scotland had a decent newspaper. I quite liked The
Scotsman . . . I quite liked it for about two or three years, but now, I dont like it very
much. Theres so much English news in it. Id much rather they had really well written
Scottish stuff.
PM43: The trouble with The Guardian is theres hardly ever anything about Scotland,
very little actually. You really do need to get another Scottish paper. I dont get one
but really I ought to. Im always being nagged at by one of my boys to get The
Scotsman.

Becoming Scottish
The key identity markers for migrants claims to becoming Scottish are
demonstrable forms of commitment and contribution to the country (Kiely et
al. 2005b). English migrants making such claims were almost all lengthy
residents, committed to living in Scotland, who saw themselves as making
positive contributions to Scottish society. We now examine the identity
accounts of some Belonging Scots and their accounts of how they (re)positioned themselves over time relative to the media.
GM14: Ive been in Scotland longer than Ive been in England so this is home and its
where I spent all my adult life so I kind of identify myself as Scottish but I know that I
have no right in the eyes of Scottish people to identify myself as Scottish . . . a large
proportion of me thinks Im Scottish or relates, yeah, I can never call myself Scottish
because Im not Scottish but I feel Scottish. If that makes sense.
I: You say that you could never claim to be Scottish?
GM14: Uhuh.
I: Even though you yourself feel that sense of identication?
GM14: Yes, because other people in Scotland wouldnt accept me as being Scottish. I
would be making almost a false claim in the eyes of other Scottish people . . .
To all intents and purposes I am Scottish and I would say that to people. I feel
Scottish, you know which is very different from saying I am Scottish. To say I am
Scottish, I probably wouldnt say that but I am to all intents and purposes Scottish.
Theres a difference between those two statements and I would be wary of the I am
Scottish and I think thats because it lays myself open to being told Im not. I dont
want to be told Im not and therefore I dont. (18 years at 28, Local Council
Administrator)

His powerful identication with Scotland and feeling Scottish stops short of a
public claim because he appreciates that others may challenge it. Alongside a
changing sense of national identity has come a growing interest in the Scottish
news media:
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487

GM14: Im listening more to Radio Scotland. Most of my news sources come from
Radio Scotland and Guardian and Herald. Big issues, Im conscious that I switch much
more and listen to Radio Scotland a lot more and buying The Sunday Herald. Those
two are two clear decisions that happened and changes. Im listening to Radio
Scotland because of the Parliament really and its more likely to carry on.

He points to Scottish devolution as a catalyst for this shift towards a more

Scottish national frame of reference. This is even more striking when he
considers how Independence might affect his belonging claim:
GM14: Ironically it (Scottish Independence) would mean I would have a Scottish
passport because I would be Scottish according to the last set of rules they pulled out.
Its that sort of thing that Im interested in.
I: Would that be something youd feel quite positively about?
GM14: I would, yes. It would perhaps give me the legal right to say that I am Scottish,
wouldnt it?

Here are two examples of respondents who claim to have shifted even further:
On identity:
PM28: I dont think of myself as English at all. Really, I feel, as much as anything,
Scottish, if you want to . . . because Ive been here so long now, 35 years. My
wifes been here longer than she lived in England. Our home is here now. Were not
moving from here. Ill die here and, as I say, three of my children are living here
and I identify with it. The charities I contribute to, the charitable things I try to
do, are for Scotland. Scotlands given me a lot and I owe something. (33 years at 38,
Chemist)

On the media:
PM28: We read The Scotsman from time to time. We dont bother to get the English
newspapers.
I: Right. Do you know why The Scotsman appeals to you more?
PM28: I suppose because it is more of a . . . I havent really done a comparison, quite
honestly but of the papers available in Scotland, I guess it comes down to The
Scotsman or the Glasgow Herald, doesnt it? Although there are other local papers and
of the national papers, I guess its almost a toss-up really and The Scotsman, I suppose
its because its more local.

On identity:
PM41: Id probably say I was Scottish because Ive lived here mostly . . . I have a
stronger sense of being Scottish but then thats a culture thing. Its more the things you
do, the people you see, the places youre used to going to, to the kind of lifestyle we
lead. I think the Scottish way of life is slightly different to the English way of life. Its
much faster down south unless youre in a really rural area, I would say. I nd we have
a lot more personal space in Scotland. (18 years at 17, Unemployed)

On the media:
PM41: I quite like The Scotsman on Saturday.
I: Do you know what it is about The Scotsman that appeals to you?
PM41: I think because its Scottish based. I feel that it pertains more to us than . . . if
you read the English Daily Express, theres hardly any local news. Whereas if you read
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Richard Kiely, David McCrone and Frank Bechhofer

the Scottish Daily Express and The Scotsman, its aimed at us and its like even just
little anecdotal stories and things, theyre Scottish.

Both these English migrants have not only come to claim that they are
Scottish but that they also favour Scottish newspapers and reject what they
now regard as an English national frame of reference within English-based
papers.
While the three groups being English, being British, and becoming
Scottish do lie on a continuum of increasing Scottishness, they should not
be taken to form a natural progression that migrants follow. Over time, some
migrants do indeed move from one identity to another, but they are more akin
to ideal types than intrinsically stable positions.
Conclusion
We have illustrated how groups having different identity strategies relate to
the media in different ways. For Scottish nationals, who mainly read the
Scottish press, there is more of a taken-for-granted, non-contentious aspect to
the media. What they read, watch and listen to is mainly the result of habit,
often focusing on local matters. Yet their preference for the Scottish press
suggests that a sense of Scottishness is important. Identity and media
consumption become contentious when something in the media challenges
their sense of identity.
It is among English migrants, however, that national identity relates more
directly to perceptions and understandings of the media. They come to
Scotland and encounter newspapers and television programmes produced
entirely in Scotland, as well as Scottish variations on the media with which
they are familiar in England. Furthermore, they nd themselves in an
environment where they have to (re)negotiate who they are, and re-assess
how their sense of national identity relates to the stance taken by the Scottish
media on Scottish, British and English national identity. Those in Scotland
who describe themselves as English often complain about a Scottish national
frame of reference in the Scottish media. Other migrants try to claim a more
inclusive sense of being British but, reinforcing Rosie et al.s (2004) point that
the existence of a British national press is an assumption rather than a reality,
they struggle to nd media compatible with being British in Scotland. Finally,
among those who make claims to being Scottish, there is a shift over time in
media consumption in favour of a Scottish perspective.
What of the wider implications of this for the relationship between national
identity and the media? The research took place in the context of the creation
of the Scottish parliament in 1999. This law-making parliament has responsibility for domestic affairs, notably health, education, law and order, and
many welfare services.21 The media provided an important framing function
for the whole project, and our interviews explored how respondents related
their senses of territorial identity to these signicant political changes. Rosie
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489

et al. have pointed to the home-nationalisation of news in the UK, whereby

newspapers produced in London carry less Scottish news, and the media in
Scotland less news about other parts of the UK. They observe: In the
immediate aftermath of devolution, newspaper reporting in England and
Scotland appears to be characterised by a remarkable degree of concentration
on the respective countries in which the papers are sold. Nation, it would
appear, is not speaking very much about anything unto nation (Rosie et al.
2004: 455). A few of our respondents interpreted this change as the Scottish
media becoming too parochial, with a greater reliance on the Holyrood
parliament for political news, and far less on Westminster,22 although one
does not have to take these assertions at face-value.
Our research also relates to what Billig called banal nationalism, the
implicit reinforcing of the national frame of reference in everyday life. In his
words:
Routinely, newspapers, like politicians, claim to stand in the eye of the country.
Particularly in their opinion and editorial columns, they use the nationalized syntax of
hegemony, simultaneously speaking to and for the nation, and representing the nation
in both senses of representation.23 They invoke a national we, which includes the
we of reader and writer, as well as the we of the universal audience (Billig 1995:
11415).

We are not suggesting that a Scottish hegemonic we exists in Scotland any

more than a British one, but that consumers have greater diversity and choice
in what they read, listen to and watch. As devolution provides a more explicit
focus for political debate, and the media north and south of the border carry
less news of England and Scotland respectively, Scottish nationals may wish
to see changes in the media that better reect their changing sense of identity.
However, the uid nature of both identity and the way people relate to the
media makes hard and fast relationships impossible to discern using survey
methodology alone. Knowing that someone says they are Scottish, English
or British is not a clear predictor of the newspapers they read or the media
they consume. Rather, each engages with the other in complex and diverse
ways that we are only now beginning to comprehend.
Notes
1 The programme (www.ed.ac.uk/usgs/forum/leverhulme/TOC.html) consists of several interlinked projects examining constitutional change and national identity.
2 The term ag comes from Billig (1995) and is concerned with how a national frame of
reference can be agged explicitly or implicitly through the content of newspaper text (Rosie et
al. 2004: 438).
3 The Parliament has wide legislative powers devolved to it; further details in the Conclusion
and note 23.
4 The Moreno question offers a choice between ve alternatives:
Which of the following statements best describes how you see yourself?
(please circle or tick one)

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Richard Kiely, David McCrone and Frank Bechhofer

Scottish, not British

More Scottish than British
Equally Scottish and British
More British than Scottish
British, not Scottish
Other (please state) ________________

Luis Moreno adapted it from an original idea by Juan Linz, and applied it to Scotland in 1986.
The version used here is for Scottish respondents. For English respondents, the response options
are altered accordingly.
5 No Scottish nationals in our sample chose British, not Scottish.
6 Conversations during interviews around identity and the media often occurred spontaneously,
particularly with English migrants. In Round 1, respondents were asked whether they followed
the Scottish Parliament in the media. We asked this again in Round 2, as well as about newspapers
they read, television programmes they watched, changes over time, and whether they were
conscious of differences in reporting in the media north and south of the border.
7 For our focus on qualitative data on national identity over the last 10 years, see Bechhofer et
al. 1999; Kiely et al. 2000; Kiely et al. 2001.
8 See Miller (1995: 32) on Britishness:
How do I know what it means to be British, what the British nation is supposed to be like? I nd
out from newspaper editorials, or history books, or lms, or songs and I take it for granted that
what I am ingesting is also being ingested by millions of other Britons whom I will never meet. So
nations cannot exists unless there are available the means of communication to make such
collective imagining feasible.
9 In this table, Prioritise Scottish means Scottish not British and more Scottish than British
(Moreno responses), and Prioritise British British not Scottish and more British than
Scottish. Equal identity corresponds to Equally Scottish and British. The data refer only to
those who read a newspaper regularly.
10 We are grateful to Michael Rosie for supplying us with this table. For Social Attitudes surveys,
see http://www.natcen.ac.uk/natcen/pages/or_socialattitudes.htm
11 These are the Scottish editions of the Daily Express, the Daily Mail, the Daily Star and the Sun.
12 Scottish press here excludes the Scottish versions of the Fleet Street tabloids.
13 There are many straightforward reasons for reading newspapers. For example:
I: Do you tend to buy a particular newspaper every day or not really?
PN39: No, sometimes I buy the Glasgow Herald. I buy The Telegraph on a Thursday because its
good jobs in it. Its as simple as that. But normally, if I buy a newspaper, its the Glasgow Herald.
I: Do you know why that appeals to you?
PN39: I like the crossword (Sales Representative, aged 54)
(For an explanation of the notation PN, see note 16)
14 The Scottish print media is heavily regionalized. The Scotsman and The Herald claim
national (i.e. Scottish) status, but have regional readership, the former in east Scotland, and
the latter in the west (Rosie et al. 2004).Local in these terms often alludes to these regions within
Scotland.
15 In the following transcript excerpts G indicates a Glasgow and P a rural Perthshire
respondent whilst M indicates a Migrant and N a National. The following number identies a
specic respondent. I is the interviewer.
16 News and current affairs programme produced in London and broadcast throughout Britain
on the BBC. In Scotland, it switches over to Newsnight Scotland after thirty of what is a ftyminute programme in the rest of the UK.
17 See for instance Watson (2003) and McIntosh et al. (2004).
18 The bracketed details following the interview excerpts for Migrants give length of residence in
Scotland, the age at which they came, and occupation at time of interview.
19 One of the several BBC channels produced in London and broadcast throughout Britain.
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491

20 This respondent is a TV Producer in the area of Childrens Entertainment but her comments
here relate to newspapers.
21 After a long political campaign seventy-four per cent of people in Scotland voted in 1997 for
the restoration of a Scottish Parliament that met for the rst time in 1999. Some powers, such as
foreign affairs/defence, and macro-economic policy remain reserved to the Westminster
Parliament. For details of the responsibilities of the Scottish parliament at Holyrood vis-a`-vis
Westminster, see http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/corporate/powers/index.htm
22 For example,
GN34: There is a different emphasis these days, Reporting Scotland will report on whats going
on in the Scottish parliament whereas the main news doesnt. It just tells you whats going on in
Westminster. There is a line these days. I would rather watch the main news than watch the
Scottish news. To nd out whats going on. A lot of the Scottish things are . . . a lot is trivia, to me
anyway, things that weve already heard about or you know its happening or . . . they repeat
themselves quite a lot as well, I think. But I think you need to watch the main news if youre
wanting to know whats going on with Mr. Bush or things like that that have serious effects on our
lives. (Tiler, aged 66)
23 Billig distinguishes two meanings of representation: the rst means standing for or
speaking for; the second, is depiction, that is, representing a scene. Thus, to claim to speak
for the people, a politician has to speak to them (Billig 1995: 98).

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