Dynamics of memory: Commemorating the 2005 London bombings in British television news

This article seeks to examine coverage of the 2005 London bombings’ first year anniversary commemorations vis-à-vis reportage of the attacks as a breaking news story. Adopting a multimodal discourse analysis approach, informed by both qualitative and quantitative methods, the study explores the thematic relationship between the two sets of coverage. Although our results show a number of dynamic processes at work, a key finding is the strong tendency for new themes to appear in the commemorative story. Our analyses also highlight the cathartic function that the event’s anniversary itself seemingly fulfils. Such empirical insights have important implications for the ways in which (catastrophic) past events are commemorated through the mass media, especially through the medium of television.