Community Repair through Truce and Contestation

Abstract

On 15 February 2015, a gunman attacked a public event on art and freedom of expression in Copenhagen, leaving one person dead. Later, trying to force his way into a bat mitzvah celebration, the gunman killed a Jewish guard. These incidents produced public discourses at the intersection of security, social control, rights and tolerance and, with that, questions related to religious, secular and national communities and identities. At the political level, this was an attempt to repair a national community divided in relation to questions of security, integration and the curbing of immigration. Mainstream print journalism faced a similar challenge in its attempt to reassert its national relevance while remaining loyal to its audience communities within a market increasingly separated by taste and platforms. Politicians and news media thus shared an interest in both repairing and contesting a Danish community. This article analyses how discourses of community repair, cohesion and exclusivity permeated the appropriation of this disruptive event into the public realm. Progressing from an intersection of cultural approaches to journalism studies and political communication, the analysis will, in addition to other concepts, aim to combine insights from research on “disruptive media events” with studies of “belonging”.

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