In the ‘Mist’ of an Amplification Spiral

The Case of the ‘Great Smog of London’

Abstract

The following paper aims to investigate how the Great Smog of London was slowly constructed in the British press as a deviation phenomenon by analysing a corpus of news stories published in the week from 5 to 12 December 1952. Drawing upon the appraisal systems of attitude and engagement, this investigation examines how the British press shaped a deviancy amplification spiral, which led to the passing of the 1956 Clean Air Act by the UK Parliament. The Act itself will also be analysed to see how the power of the institution is linguistically expressed in legal terms when trying to assert control over environmental matters. In order to do this, a CDA- inspired environmental law analysis will be applied to the study of the Clean Air Act, so as to see how the legal language interacts with societal elites and laypeople, revealing essential tensions in the relationship between nature and society and lay bare the discursive power struggles that underlie environmental politics.