Viral Text, Political Disinformation, and Parliamentary Reform in 1830

Abstract This article provides a close study of ‘Nice pickings’, a short piece of political disinformation generated within the London radical press. It examines the means and methods by which this became a viral text and reconstructs its pattern of circulation. It argues that, by passing rapidly and widely around a range of different media and audiences, by being susceptible to revamping and adaptation, and by providing a gateway onto a series of powerful stories already in circulation, this single paragraph illuminates some of the ways in which a national reform movement was forged in 1830.