The Representation of EU Citizens During Times of Crisis: An Analysis of the British Newspaper Coverage During Brexit

Extant research often argues that the existence of a European public sphere is crucial for democratic governance, because it functions as a feedback mechanism between those who govern at the European Union (EU) level and its constituents – the EU citizens. This study argues that in the supranational polity of the EU, the European public sphere fulfils another function: to mediate among the diverse citizens of the EU member states. A recent event that will have a profound impact on the EU citizenship and the rights of EU citizens is the Brexit referendum. This paper asks: To what extent were EU citizens part of the Brexit debate and how were they portrayed by the British media? The analysis is based on 55,163 news stories published in 382 British tabloids, broadsheet and regional papers between 1st January 2016 and 30th of June 2017, covering a period of 6 month before and after the referendum. Automated content and sentiment analysis were used to determine whether citizens were mentioned in a news story and to get a better understanding of how citizens were portrayed by the media, a sentiment analysis was carried out analyzing 20 words before and after references to citizens. The results show that citizens are visible in 22% of Brexit news stories. Visibility peaks around the day of the referendum and is on average slightly higher after than before the referendum day. The media most frequently refer to British citizens, followed by references to the broader term of EU citizens. Explicit mentions of citizens from other EU member states are rare, but there are important differences across countries: While citizens from some member states (e.g., Croatia) are completely absent, citizens from Poland and Ireland receive comparatively high levels of attention. While Irish citizens might be frequently mentioned due to the geographic proximity to the UK, Polish citizens are the main foreign nationality living in the UK. The sentiment analysis revealed that there are significant differences when it comes to the tone of the news media coverage and the study finds correlations between a negative sentiment and references to British and Polish citizens. This might suggest that the referendum was closely linked to the question of migration and EU citizens as such were not portrayed in a negative light.