Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-26 |
| Journal | Political Research Exchange |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 7 Jul 2020 |
Abstract
years. Whereas extra-parliamentary actors dominated the run-up to
the 2016 referendum, the issue moved back to Parliament after the
vote. This paper analyses newspaper reporting on Brexit in major
British outlets during the post-referendum phase from July 2017
to March 2019. We study the visibility of Members of Parliament
to assess whether the debate was balanced between parties and
individual MPs relative to their vote and seat share. We conduct
an automated text analysis of 58,247 online and offline
newspaper articles covering the ideological spectrum from left to
right, and from pro-Brexit to anti-Brexit. Our main findings are: (1)
Conservative politicians dominated the debate, and (2) organized
pro-Brexit MP pressure groups such as ‘Leave Means Leave’ were
disproportionally more visible. This means that reporting was
biased towards Conservative MPs and within the Conservative
Party towards supporters of a hard Brexit. These findings are
remarkably stable across different types of newspapers. The
results challenge previous analyses that found a higher degree of
balance in reporting but corroborate recent studies on the
tonality of Brexit reporting that found a pro-Brexit bias.
Keywords
- Brexit, newspaper analysis, media bias, visibility
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)
- Political Science and International Relations
Research Area (based on ÖFOS 2012)
- SOCIAL SCIENCES
- Political Science
- Political Science
- General theory of the state
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In: Political Research Exchange, Vol. 2, No. 1, 07.07.2020, p. 1-26.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Dominating the debate
T2 - Visibility bias and mentions of British MPs in newspaper reporting on Brexit
AU - Hönnige, Christoph
AU - Nyhuis, Dominic
AU - Meyer, Philipp
AU - Köker, Philipp
AU - Shikano, Susumu
N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and also the participants of the conference Advances in the Empirical and Theoretical Study of Parliaments organized by the ECPR Standing Group Parliaments in September 2019, as well as the participants of the Norddeutsches Kolloquium Sozialwissenschaften in July 2019 and January 2020. We would especially like to thank our student assistants Virginia Bergholz, Jule Kegel, Carolin Luksche and Felix Münchow for research support.
PY - 2020/7/7
Y1 - 2020/7/7
N2 - Brexit has been the most important issue in British politics in recentyears. Whereas extra-parliamentary actors dominated the run-up tothe 2016 referendum, the issue moved back to Parliament after thevote. This paper analyses newspaper reporting on Brexit in majorBritish outlets during the post-referendum phase from July 2017to March 2019. We study the visibility of Members of Parliamentto assess whether the debate was balanced between parties andindividual MPs relative to their vote and seat share. We conductan automated text analysis of 58,247 online and offlinenewspaper articles covering the ideological spectrum from left toright, and from pro-Brexit to anti-Brexit. Our main findings are: (1)Conservative politicians dominated the debate, and (2) organizedpro-Brexit MP pressure groups such as ‘Leave Means Leave’ weredisproportionally more visible. This means that reporting wasbiased towards Conservative MPs and within the ConservativeParty towards supporters of a hard Brexit. These findings areremarkably stable across different types of newspapers. Theresults challenge previous analyses that found a higher degree ofbalance in reporting but corroborate recent studies on thetonality of Brexit reporting that found a pro-Brexit bias.
AB - Brexit has been the most important issue in British politics in recentyears. Whereas extra-parliamentary actors dominated the run-up tothe 2016 referendum, the issue moved back to Parliament after thevote. This paper analyses newspaper reporting on Brexit in majorBritish outlets during the post-referendum phase from July 2017to March 2019. We study the visibility of Members of Parliamentto assess whether the debate was balanced between parties andindividual MPs relative to their vote and seat share. We conductan automated text analysis of 58,247 online and offlinenewspaper articles covering the ideological spectrum from left toright, and from pro-Brexit to anti-Brexit. Our main findings are: (1)Conservative politicians dominated the debate, and (2) organizedpro-Brexit MP pressure groups such as ‘Leave Means Leave’ weredisproportionally more visible. This means that reporting wasbiased towards Conservative MPs and within the ConservativeParty towards supporters of a hard Brexit. These findings areremarkably stable across different types of newspapers. Theresults challenge previous analyses that found a higher degree ofbalance in reporting but corroborate recent studies on thetonality of Brexit reporting that found a pro-Brexit bias.
KW - Brexit
KW - newspaper analysis
KW - media bias
KW - visibility
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097521318&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/2474736X.2020.1788955
DO - 10.1080/2474736X.2020.1788955
M3 - Article
VL - 2
SP - 1
EP - 26
JO - Political Research Exchange
JF - Political Research Exchange
SN - 2474-736X
IS - 1
ER -