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Abstract

Despite the large amount of pre-existing research surrounding immigration discourse analysis, there is very little that focuses on a direct comparison between two corresponding corpora, and even less which focuses explicitly on the comparison of a left- and right-wing news organisation. The overall picture that emerges from literature suggests that internationally, the press take a fairly uniformed approach in their representation of immigration. Meanwhile, within the UK, the political standing of a news organisation can affect the use of language devices within articles, which consequently affects the portrayal of immigration. This study completes an in-depth analysis of two corpora, using articles published by the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, collected from the three weeks prior to the Brexit referendum (23rd June 2016). The corpora were then analysed using Sketch Engine and then corpus analysis, so as to achieve the following two aims of the dissertation. The first research question referred to providing an insight into some of the different linguistic techniques used by the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror during the three-week lead up to the referendum regarding immigration discourse. Additionally, this dissertation will aim to provide further understanding on the variability of the representation of immigration by left- and right-wing news organisations (the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail respectively). Overall, it was found that the Daily Mail (right wing) had a much more sympathetic attitude towards immigration than the Daily Mirror (left wing). This dissertation similarly identified that the Daily Mail used a wider variety of language techniques, using figurative motifs and often hyperboles, while the Daily Mirror tended to use emotive language less frequently. This study significantly showed that varying use of language can represent the same topic in a different light, which can mislead and misinform the audience.

Course: Modern Languages - BA - U2834FTC

Date Deposited: 2023-07-28

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14180.html