On June 23 2016, the United Kingdom became the first nation to formally indicate its intention to withdraw its membership from the European Union. After 51.9% of participating voters voted to leave, the UK government formally announced the country's withdrawal in March 2017, commencing a two-year process that was due to conclude with the UK officially withdrawing from the European Union on 29 March 2019. As the UK parliament thrice voted against the negotiated withdrawal agreement, that deadline has been extended twice, and is currently 31 October 2019, however, an act of Parliament requires the government to seek a third extension if no agreement is reached before 19 October. The UK’s withdrawal from the EU is happening right now and is an ongoing predicament in global politics that does not seem close to being resolved in the near, or distant future. While Brexit is primarily a predicament for the United Kingdom, its consequences will be felt globally across the European Union and beyond.
This thesis uses discourse analysis to analyse four British newspapers at the time of the 2016 European Union referendum. The print media, mainly in the form of newspaper, can and has been used as an instrument to control and influence public opinion. It is thought that within this project, analysing the reasons for leaving, by looking at a broad spectrum of newspaper articles, will provide insights into how discourse is used in the construction of reasons for wanting the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
The aim of the discourse analysis is to ascertain the role that these outlets had in representing the potential positives of leaving the EU, while at the same time obtaining an understanding of the relationship between the outlet and the reader. This thesis looks in depth at a theory of discourse analysis and to a lesser extent Euroscepticism. In order to operationalise the critical discourse analysis, the analytical toolbox presented by Chouliraki and Faircloth was employed. Their framework drew on systemic functional linguistics, which enables the thesis to offer a detailed analysis of exactly how language is employed in the construction of reasons for wanting to leave the EU. Taggert and Szczerbiak’s theory of Euroscepticism was then used to support the discourse analysis theory and analysis by providing clarity over areas of Euroscepticism, particularly the rejectionist stance. The findings from this study established in almost all instances, the reasons for wanting to leave the European Union and or the benefits for leaving the European Union were a result of either economic or sovereignty or arguments based on immigration.