Abstract
NEW POST TRUTH ERA: AN ANALYSIS OF BREXIT REFERENDUM IN THE UK’S TABLOID NEWSPAPERS
Post-truth which was chosen as the Word of the year in 2016 by Oxford Dictionaries denotes that objective phenomena are less effective than the sentiments and personel beliefs in shaping public opinion. In simple terms, it means being affected by emotion-based arguments rather than facts. In the year 2016, following Donald Trumph’s triumph in US presidential elections and Brexit referendum which marked the UK’s departure from the European Union, this term began to be more frequently used and these two cases have come to be seen as developments symbolizing post-truth. Brexit referendum was held on 23 June 2016 and the United Kingdom decided to leave the European Union. In the course of this process, anti-migration discourse was frequently used by the campaigners supporting Brexit. This paper analyses how anti-migration discourse developed by the propenents of the UK’s departure from the European Union was covered in the news, by means of sampling the front page news of the tabloid newspapers in the UK during the one-month period between 23 May and 23 June 2016. In conclusion, this paper attempts to address the relationship between post-truth and media with reference to news coverage of migration and migrants during the Brexit process.
Keywords
Post truth, Brexit, United Kingdom, tabloid newspapers
