"A swarm of people coming across!" : a critical discourse analysis of the UK media and its representation of immigrants

Abstract

In 2015, David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, commented that there was “a swarm of people coming across the Mediterranean, seeking a better life, wanting to come to Britain”. His unfavourable description of immigrants as “a swarm” was heavily condemned, and he was roundly criticised for his choice of potentially divisive language which was seen to be extremely controversial during the 'immigration crisis'. For Critical Discourse Analysts, the language of media is considered very important in influencing peoples' attitudes on the topic of immigration as they promote their own ideologies through discourse to maintain power. The objective of this thesis was to study the representation of immigrants by UK broadsheet newspapers columns from different political agendas to see if newspaper political stance accounted for a difference in representation. Critical Discourse Analysis was selected as the theoretical and analytical approach, drawing upon van Dijk’s (1995) Text Analysis Model. The intention was to critically analyse media discourse on macro and micro levels to identify the newspapers' implicit and explicit portrayal of immigrants. The findings revealed that regardless of political stance, both Centre-left and Centre-right newspapers reproduced old, familiar, negative rhetoric in their representation of immigrants and the Centre-right broadsheets adopted a stance which was very similar to the tabloids. It is argued that a new approach needs to be taken in media coverage of immigration to provide a more balanced and accurate coverage.