Volume 20, Issue 2
GBP
Buy:£15.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

Consistent with a populist script, evoking the people has been a nodal point in the discursive unfolding of Brexit and its legitimation. This paper focuses on the mediatization of the Brexit referendum campaign in a corpus of online British tabloids to address the critical question of how the people in whose name Brexit was (de)legitimised were discursively constructed and mobilized. The argument put forward is that the legitimation of Brexit was achieved through exclusionary definitions of the people and through strategies of fear, resentment and empowerment. This discursive framing points to the wider question of the instrumental role that a large section of the British tabloid press has had not simply in the contingency of referendum but also in the longer-term legitimation chain of Brexit and in its institutionalization and more generally in the historical priming of their readership with negative coverage of the UK/EU relationship.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.19103.zap
2020-11-10
2024-03-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aalberg, Toril, Frank Esser, Carsten Reinemann, Jesper Strömbäck, and Claes H. de Vreese
    2018Populist political communication in Europe. London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Anthony, Laurence
    2018AntConc (Version 3.5.8). Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Arditi, Benjamin
    2007Politics on the Edges of Liberalism: Difference, Populism, Revolution, Agitation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Anderson, Peter. J. and Tony Weymouth
    2014Insulting the public?: The British press and the European Union. New York: Addison Wesley Longman. 10.4324/9781315840420
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315840420 [Google Scholar]
  5. Bell, Alan
    1996The language of news media. Oxford: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bennett, Samuel
    2019 Standing up for ‘real people’ UKIP, the Brexit, and discursive strategies on Twitter in Zienkowski, J. and Breeze, R. (2019)Imagining the Peoples of Europe: Populist discourses across the political spectrum. 230–257John Benjamins: Amsterdam. 10.1075/dapsac.83.10ben
    https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.83.10ben [Google Scholar]
  7. Berry, Mike
    2016 ‘Understanding the Role of the Mass Media in the EU Referendum’, inD. Jackson, E. Thorsen, and D. Wring (eds), EU Referendum Analysis 2016: Media, Voters and the Campaign. Bournemouth: Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community, Bournemouth University.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Bingham, Adrian and Martin Conboy
    2015Tabloid Century: The Popular Press in Britain,1896 to the present. Oxford, Peter Lang. 10.3726/978‑3‑0353‑0700‑9
    https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0353-0700-9 [Google Scholar]
  9. Bos, Linda and Kees Brants
    2014 Populist rhetoric in politics and media: A longitudinal study of the Netherlands. European Journal of Communication, 29, 703–719. 10.1177/0267323114545709
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323114545709 [Google Scholar]
  10. Bruggemann, Michael
    2014 Between frame setting and frame sending: How journalists contribute to news frames. Communication Theory, 24(1), 61–82. 10.1111/comt.12027
    https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12027 [Google Scholar]
  11. Buckledee, Steve
    2018The language of Brexit: How Britain talked its way out of the European Union. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Canovan, Margaret
    2005The People. London: Polity Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Carey, Sean and Burton, Jonathan
    2004 The Influence of the Press in Shaping Public Opinion towards the European Union in Britain. Political Studies52 (3): 623–640. 10.1111/j.1467‑9248.2004.00499.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2004.00499.x [Google Scholar]
  14. Conboy, Martin
    2004 Language and the British tabloid press. InJ. Aitchison and D. Lewis (eds.) New Media Language. Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Daddow, Oliver
    2012 The UK media and ‘Europe’: from permissive consensus to destructive dissent. International Affairs, Volume88, Issue6, pp.1219–1236. 10.1111/j.1468‑2346.2012.01129.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2012.01129.x [Google Scholar]
  16. De Cleen, Benjamin and Yannis Stavrakakis
    2017 Distinctions and Articulations: A Discourse Theoretical Framework for the Study of Populism and Nationalism, Javnost – The Public, 24:4, 301–319. 10.1080/13183222.2017.1330083
    https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2017.1330083 [Google Scholar]
  17. Entman, Robert M.
    1993 Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication. 43 (4): 51–58. 10.1111/j.1460‑2466.1993.tb01304.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x [Google Scholar]
  18. Esser, Frank, and Jesper Strömbäck
    2014Mediatization of politics: understanding the transformation of western democracies. London; Palgrave. 10.1057/9781137275844
    https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137275844 [Google Scholar]
  19. European Broadcasting Unit
    European Broadcasting Unit 2017 Trust in Media Report. Available fromhttps://www.ebu.ch/publications/trust-in-media-2017
  20. Freeden, Michael
    2017 After the Brexit referendum: revisiting populism as an ideology, Journal of Political Ideologies, 22:1, 1–11. 10.1080/13569317.2016.1260813
    https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2016.1260813 [Google Scholar]
  21. Gamson, William, and Andre Modigliani
    1987 The changing culture of affirmative action. InR. G. Braungait and M. M. Braungart (Eds.), Research in political sociology (Vol.3, pp.137–177). Greenwich, CT.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Girardet, Raoul
    1990Mythes et mythologies politiques. Paris: Éd. du Seuil.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Hameleers, Michael, Bos, Linda and Claes H. de Vreese
    2016 “They did it”: The effects of emotionalized blame attribution in populist communication. Communication Research. 44(6), 870–900. 10.1177/0093650216644026
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650216644026 [Google Scholar]
  24. 2017 Shoot the messenger? The media’s role in framing populist attributions of blame. Journalism. 20(9):1145–1164. 10.1177/1464884917698170
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884917698170 [Google Scholar]
  25. Jagers, Jan and Stefaan Walgrave
    2007 Populism as political communication style: An empirical study of political parties’ discourse in Belgium. European Journal of Political Research. 46(3), 319–345. 10.1111/j.1475‑6765.2006.00690.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2006.00690.x [Google Scholar]
  26. Krämer, Benjamin
    2014 Media Populism: A Conceptual Clarification and Some Theses on Its Effects. Communication Theory, 24 (1): 42–60. 10.1111/comt.12029
    https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12029 [Google Scholar]
  27. Krämer, Benjamin
    2018 Populism, Media, and the Form of Society. Communication Theory, 28, 4, 444–465. 10.1093/ct/qty017
    https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qty017 [Google Scholar]
  28. Krzyżanowski, Michał
    2010The Discursive Construction of European Identities. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. 2014 Values, imaginaries and templates of journalistic practice: a Critical Discourse Analysis, Social Semiotics, 24:3, 345–365. 10.1080/10350330.2014.930607
    https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2014.930607 [Google Scholar]
  30. 2019 Brexit and the imaginary of ‘crisis’: a discourse- conceptual analysis of European news media. Critical Discourse Studies, Vol.16, Issue4. 10.1080/17405904.2019.1592001
    https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2019.1592001 [Google Scholar]
  31. Krzyżanowski, Michał, Anna Triandafyllidou, and Ruth Wodak
    2018 The Mediatization and the Politicization of the “Refugee Crisis” in Europe, Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 16:1–2, 1–14. 10.1080/15562948.2017.1353189
    https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2017.1353189 [Google Scholar]
  32. Laclau, Ernesto
    2005On Populist Reason. London: Verso.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Levy, David A. L., Billur Aslan and Diego Bironzo
    2016UK Press Coverage of the EU Referendum. Reuters Institute for the Study of JournalismOxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Mazzoleni, Gianpietro
    2008 Populism and the Media. InD. Albertazzi and D. McDonnell. Twenty-First Centry Populism: The Spectre of Western European Democracy. Pp.49–64. Springer. 10.1057/9780230592100_4
    https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230592100_4 [Google Scholar]
  35. McCombs, Maxwell E.
    2009Communication and democracy: Exploring the intellectual frontiers in agenda-setting theory. New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. McNeil, Robert and Eric Karstens
    2018Comparative report on cross-country media practices, migration, and mobility. European Journalism Centre. University of Oxford. Available fromhttps://www.reminder-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Final-September-2018_with-cover.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Mény, Yves and Yves Surel
    2002 (eds) Democracies and the Populist Challenge. Palgrave Macmillan, London. 10.1057/9781403920072
    https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403920072 [Google Scholar]
  38. Moffitt, Benjamin and Simon Tormey
    2013 Rethinking Populism: Politics, Mediatization and Political Style. Political Studies, Vol62, Issue2, pp.381–397. 10.1111/1467‑9248.12032
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12032 [Google Scholar]
  39. Moore, Martin and Gordon Ramsay
    2017UK media coverage of the 2016 EU referendum campaign. Centre for the Study of Media, Communication and Power. King’s College London.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Mudde, Cas and Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser
    2013 Exclusionary vs. Inclusionary Populism: Comparing Contemporary Europe and Latin America. Government and Opposition, 48(2), 147–174. 10.1017/gov.2012.11
    https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2012.11 [Google Scholar]
  41. OFCOM
    OFCOM 2017News consumption in the UK:2016. Published27 June 2017. Available fromhttps://www.ofcom.org.uk/data/assets/pdf_file/0016/103570/news-consumption-uk-2016.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Partington, Alan, Duguid, Alison and Charlotte Taylor
    2013Patterns and Meanings in Discourse: Theory and Practice in Corpus-assisted Discourse Studies (CADS). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 10.1075/scl.55
    https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.55 [Google Scholar]
  43. Reyes, Antonio
    2011 Strategies of legitimization in political discourse: From words to actions. Discourse and Society, 22(6), 781–807. 10.1177/0957926511419927
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926511419927 [Google Scholar]
  44. Richardson, John. E.
    2010Analysing newspapers: An approach from critical discourse analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Scheufele, Dietram
    2000 Agenda setting, priming, and framing revisited: Another look at cognitive effects of political communication. Mass Communication and Society. 3(2–3), 297–316. 10.1207/S15327825MCS0323_07
    https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327825MCS0323_07 [Google Scholar]
  46. Schreiber, Mia and Zohar Kampf
    2018 Intention work: The scope of journalistic interpretation of political speech acts. Journalism, 1:18.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Seaton, Jean
    2016 Brexit and the media. The political Quarterly, 87:3, 333–337. 10.1111/1467‑923X.12296
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923X.12296 [Google Scholar]
  48. Stavrakakis, Yannis
    2017 Discourse theory in populism research: Three challenges and a dilemma. Journal of Language and Politics, 16:4523–534. 10.1075/jlp.17025.sta
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.17025.sta [Google Scholar]
  49. 2014 The Return of “the People”: Populism and Anti-Populism in the Shadow of the European Crisis. Constellations, 21: 505–517. 10.1111/1467‑8675.12127
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.12127 [Google Scholar]
  50. Van Dijk, Teun Adrian
    2013News as discourse. New York: Routledge. 10.4324/9780203062784
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203062784 [Google Scholar]
  51. Van Leeuwen, Theo
    2007 Legitimation in discourse and communication. Discourse and Communication1, 1: 91–112. 10.1177/1750481307071986
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481307071986 [Google Scholar]
  52. Wirz, Dominique S., Martin Wettstein, Anne Schulz, Philipp Müller, Christian Schemer, Nicole Ernst, Frank Esser, and Werner Wirth
    2018 “The Effects of Right-Wing Populist Communication on Emotions and Cognitions toward Immigrants.” The International Journal of Press/Politics, 23(4), 496–516. 10.1177/1940161218788956
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161218788956 [Google Scholar]
  53. Wodak, Ruth
    2017 ‘The “Establishment”, the “Élites”, and the “People”: Who’s who?’, Journal of Language and Politics, 16:4, 551–565. 10.1075/jlp.17030.wod
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.17030.wod [Google Scholar]
  54. Wodak, Ruth and Krzyżanowski, Michał
    2017 Right-Wing Populism in Europe and USA Contesting Politics and Discourse beyond ‘Orbanism’ and ‘Trumpism’. Special issue ofJournal of Language and Politics, 16:4. 10.1075/jlp.17042.krz
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.17042.krz [Google Scholar]
  55. Zappettini, Franco
    2021 Taking the left way out of Europe. The role of Lexit in Labour’s ambivalent stance on European (dis)integration. Special issue on ‘Reimagining Europe and its (dis)integration? (De)legitimising the EU’s project at times of crisis’ (eds) Franco Zappettini and Samuel Bennett. Journal of Language and Politics, 20:1.
    [Google Scholar]
  56. 2019a The Brexit referendum: how trade and immigration in the discourses of the official campaigns have legitimised a toxic (inter)national logic. Critical Discourse Studies, Vol.16, Issue4. 10.1080/17405904.2019.1593206
    https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2019.1593206 [Google Scholar]
  57. 2019b The official vision for ‘global Britain’: Brexit as rupture and continuity between free trade, liberal internationalism and ‘values’. InV. Koller, S. Kopf, and M. Milgbauer (Eds.), Discourses of Brexit. Abingdon: Routledge. 10.4324/9781351041867‑9
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351041867-9 [Google Scholar]
  58. Zappettini, Franco and Michał Krzyżanowski, M.
    2019 ‘Brexit’ in media and political discourses: From national populist imaginary to cross-national social and political crisis. Special issue on ‘Brexit as a Social and Political Crisis: Discourses in Media and Politics’ inCritical Discourse Studies Journal, 16:4.
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Zienkowski, Jan and Ruth Breeze
    2019Imagining the Peoples of Europe: Populist discourses across the political spectrum. 230–257, John Benjamins: Amsterdam. 10.1075/dapsac.83
    https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.83 [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.19103.zap
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.19103.zap
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Keyword(s): Brexit; Critical Discourse Analysis; Media Linguistics; populism; tabloid journalism

Most Cited