Cover Image

Discursive representation of the EU in Brexit-related British media

Coverage of the Brexit referendum dominated UK media in the summer of 2016. Previous research has focused on the Leave-leaning press and the representations of politicians within that debate. Analysing the British media representation of the EU is paramount in understanding dominant, conflicting dis...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Alkhammash, Reem
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2020
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15264/1/35275-120387-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15264/
http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1246
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
id my-ukm.journal.15264
record_format eprints
spelling my-ukm.journal.152642020-09-25T08:27:21Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15264/ Discursive representation of the EU in Brexit-related British media Alkhammash, Reem Coverage of the Brexit referendum dominated UK media in the summer of 2016. Previous research has focused on the Leave-leaning press and the representations of politicians within that debate. Analysing the British media representation of the EU is paramount in understanding dominant, conflicting discourses regarding the decision of British voters in the period preceding the referendum. This study compares language use in conflicting discourses of Brexit in British media by adopting a corpus-based discourse analysis using the Brexit corpus in Sketch Engine. Drawing on two corpus methods, namely concordance analysis and collocation analysis of the lexis under study (i.e., the term ‘EU’), results of the analysis show that in the Leave campaign, the EU is represented in a negative sense in that continuing to be a member of the EU is viewed as bringing certain economic danger to the future of the UK and as increasing the prospect of terrorist attacks. However, the EU is represented in the Remain campaign both positively and negatively. It is represented positively in that the British public is reminded that the UK shares similar values to those held by the EU and negatively in that the media are critical of the EU in its current form. The Remain campaign also dismantles narratives made by the Leave campaign detailing the benefits of exit to British sovereignty and economy. This article concludes with a discussion of the dominant discourses about the EU found in the British media. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2020-02 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15264/1/35275-120387-1-PB.pdf Alkhammash, Reem (2020) Discursive representation of the EU in Brexit-related British media. GEMA ; Online Journal of Language Studies, 20 (1). pp. 77-91. ISSN 1675-8021 http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1246
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description Coverage of the Brexit referendum dominated UK media in the summer of 2016. Previous research has focused on the Leave-leaning press and the representations of politicians within that debate. Analysing the British media representation of the EU is paramount in understanding dominant, conflicting discourses regarding the decision of British voters in the period preceding the referendum. This study compares language use in conflicting discourses of Brexit in British media by adopting a corpus-based discourse analysis using the Brexit corpus in Sketch Engine. Drawing on two corpus methods, namely concordance analysis and collocation analysis of the lexis under study (i.e., the term ‘EU’), results of the analysis show that in the Leave campaign, the EU is represented in a negative sense in that continuing to be a member of the EU is viewed as bringing certain economic danger to the future of the UK and as increasing the prospect of terrorist attacks. However, the EU is represented in the Remain campaign both positively and negatively. It is represented positively in that the British public is reminded that the UK shares similar values to those held by the EU and negatively in that the media are critical of the EU in its current form. The Remain campaign also dismantles narratives made by the Leave campaign detailing the benefits of exit to British sovereignty and economy. This article concludes with a discussion of the dominant discourses about the EU found in the British media.
format Article
author Alkhammash, Reem
spellingShingle Alkhammash, Reem
Discursive representation of the EU in Brexit-related British media
author_facet Alkhammash, Reem
author_sort Alkhammash, Reem
title Discursive representation of the EU in Brexit-related British media
title_short Discursive representation of the EU in Brexit-related British media
title_full Discursive representation of the EU in Brexit-related British media
title_fullStr Discursive representation of the EU in Brexit-related British media
title_full_unstemmed Discursive representation of the EU in Brexit-related British media
title_sort discursive representation of the eu in brexit-related british media
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2020
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15264/1/35275-120387-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/15264/
http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1246
_version_ 1680321967010349056
score 13.211869

Similar Items