Why current affairs needs social theory : an illustrative case study of rights’ abuses in Burma

![CDATA[This paper is part of a wider project on social theory and current affairs, which is directed both at the academic researchers and at the wider audience for news and current affairs accounts. With respect to readers and viewers of news and current affairs the aims of the project are unashamedly pedagogical, intending to develop the capacity of audiences to engage more effectively with current affairs texts, from television news through documentaries to academic commentaries in periodicals such as the New York Review of Books or in book--‐length tomes. I will set out some of the key, generalizable, concepts of the approach in this paper, although some aspects of the argument will have to be alluded to rather than spelt out due to the limitations of space. The critical power of the concepts will be demonstrated through an illustrative analysis of a short Agence France--‐Presse (AFP) report from August 2009 on international reaction to rights’ record of the Burmese junta.]]