ABSTRACT

Despite declining sales, the UK print media remains a powerful actor in British political debate. In recent times, nowhere has this seemed more evident than in the run-up to the UK referendum on European Union membership, during which a predominantly Eurosceptic press lent its backing to an ultimately victorious Leave campaign. Through qualitative analysis of reports by two pro-Remain and two Leave-supporting newspapers, during pre- and post-referendum periods, this chapter scrutinises not only the extent of the print media’s influence over the broader discourse about ‘Europe’, but also what this signifies for meaningful democratic debate on emotive but highly complex issues such as Brexit. Crucially, the research establishes three pertinent findings. First, though the Leave press was extremely vocal during the referendum campaign, its influence stems from a far longer-term shaping of the UK’s EU-related debates. Second, the significant role played by newspapers in setting the parameters of wider dialogue about the EU raises critical questions as to whether sufficient checks and balances are operating across the democratic landscape to ensure a diversity of discussion. Third, while one might have expected the Leave vote to create the elbow room for all quarters of the British press to examine the Brexit process with rigour, the Eurosceptic press has instead chosen further to entrench the ‘us versus them’ narrative that has always dominated its coverage of Europe. This arguably has repercussions beyond Brexit, including the issue of whether stepping back from Europe also means distancing the UK from the separate European Convention on Human Rights.