The Representation of (Illegal) Migrants in The British News

Abstract

This research looks at how migration is represented in British newspapers by using multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) to examine two news articles published in July/June 2015 from The Guardian and the Daily Mail. The study takes a closer look at the categories used to define immigrants, including the implicit assumption of illegality associated with ‘migrants’ crossing the Mediterranean/Calais. The analysis reveals how both news articles contribute to a similar discourse, which places the refugee at a distance and presents the UK as being threatened by a rising number of, specifically male, ‘migrants’. This article deconstructs two ideologically dissimilar news articles to reveal the manner in which they can both contribute to a negative construction of refugees and immigrants arriving in Europe.