Authors:

Alexander Withrow

Date Created:

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About Paper:

The 2016 UK referendum on continued European Union (EU) membership resulted in a narrow victory for Leave, with 51.89% [1] voting for Brexit, a result that shocked the international community and prompted questions about the social and political forces driving the campaign. This study argues that deeply entrenched Eurosceptical attitudes, rooted in a longstanding cultural disposition toward British exceptionalism, were systematically mobilised by the tabloid press to influence public opinion in favour of Leave. To examine this, the study first traces the history of British Euroscepticism from the 1975 European Economic Community (EEC) referendum to the 2016 vote, before conducting a content analysis of over 350 Daily Express headlines published during the official campaign period (April 14 — June 23, 2016), categorised around the themes of immigration, the EU, Brexit, and its economic impacts. Analysis revealed a consistent deployment of emotive, provocative language including terms such as fury, attacked, and slams, alongside delegitimising labels for the Remain campaign, such as Project Fear and scaremongers. These findings suggest that the Daily Express played an active role in reinforcing Eurosceptic sentiment by framing the debate in emotionally charged and one-sided terms. It is concluded that tabloid media coverage, grounded in and amplifying pre-existing cultural attitudes, was a significant contributing factor in shaping the public's decision to vote Leave.

Source:

Loyola University Chicago

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Co-authors:

Alexander Withrow