In recent years there has been a noticeable increase in what have been described as ‘culture wars’ stories in the UK media. This is the result of a toxic combination of a purposeful campaign from the reactionary right and a media environment that has bent towards dangerous sensationalism and bigotry. 

Though the debates we’ve seen around the ‘culture wars’ are inherently skewed, there is a risk that by not engaging with them we give a platform, without a counter argument, to those sowing division. Some argue that by stepping away from the debate, for very legitimate reasons, we may fail to provide a counter narrative to the public watching and listening. 

So at the end of 2020 NEON commissioned Align to produce a report on the ‘culture wars’ in order to better understand what’s going on and to explore ways of engaging differently with them in order to better respond to the media cycles that enable these debates. To produce this report, Align conducted a total of 21 interviews, which included people who appear in the media, are thinkers, writers, academics, campaigners or activists involved in cultural engagement.

With contributions from:

• Hoda Baraka from Align, communications specialist, strategist, organisational consultant and co-author of the report
• Dalia Gebrial, academic and commentator, who was interviewed for the report, and someone with a wealth of hands-on experience in navigating culture wars framing in the media.
• Dora Meade, head of messaging at NEON.
  

Zoom link included in confirmation email.