The result of the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum (henceforth the Brexit referendum) was historic as it signified the beginning of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. During the referendum campaign, newspapers played a key role in disseminating information and potentially influencing what topics were deemed more important in the public eye. This paper examines the portrayal of both the economy and immigration in the press before and during the Brexit referendum. Used as a data source for this examination is the Daily Mail, one of the most widely distributed newspapers in the United Kingdom both in print and online. The author undertook a media content analysis on over 40 articles published by the Daily Mail between April 2016 and June 2016 to discern patterns in coverage. This study seeks to offer insights as to how the topic of immigration surpassed that of economics as the most salient topic during the referendum due to agenda setting and media framing by the likes of the Daily Mail. While this paper speculates that these measures may have affected the outcome of the referendum, further data and investigation would be required to warrant such a conclusion.
Deborah Sogelola (Mon,) studied this question.