The illusion of public opinion: a descriptive analysis of media framing of immigration in the Brexit campaign

Ashas, Kazeem Olatunde (2022) The illusion of public opinion: a descriptive analysis of media framing of immigration in the Brexit campaign. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The referendum of 2016 took Brexit to the centre stage as one of the controversial discourses in the United Kingdom. Particularly, the role of the media in framing immigration during Brexit campaign makes it worthy of attention. Using the framing theory, the study gave a descriptive analysis of how the media framed immigration in the context of Brexit campaign. Relying on primary data, the study selected 104 distinct articles published by selected UK national newspapers from the LexisNexis database, and analyzed them under seven frames identified: social welfare, labour market, national identity, law and order, Turkey’s possible EU membership, terrorism, and moral values. It combined both quantitative and content analysis to give robust results. Findings show that while newspapers claim to be neutral entities, they were largely involved in crafting their stories to favour either pro-Leave or pro-Remain group. The study concludes that unless the news media maintain their objectivity within the theatre of politics, they will continue to remain like the two sides of a coin that can unite different and diverse forces together or cause them to fall apart.

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