UKIP and the construction of immigration in the media:a comparison with the 1930s

Abstract

The UK Independence Party’s main anti-EU criticism, targeted immigration and the free movement of people into Britain. UKIP, directly selected people from A2 European member states, Bulgaria and Romania, which the party leader, Nigel Farage, considered as ‘less developed’ countries. Immigration throughout Britain has received aggressive media attention. The research interest was to compare current media and political representation of immigration, immigrants, and refugees with historical categorisation during the 1930s, and in relation to those groups which were persecuted as the ‘other’ in ethnic categorisations. Drawing on critical discourse analysis the research examined Broadsheet newspapers during the periods 1939-45 and 2015-16. The analysis found a new method of approach to interpret story associations within headlines, articles and accompanying advertising. The findings suggested, that there are direct associations or prominent metaphorical references with regard to immigration, which are featured either next to, or within the same page as, contagion and or infectious diseases, commemorative celebrations and or references to nationalism. The findings suggested, that there are parallels in the circulation of nationalist discourse, which can be likened to historical language used during the 1930s and UKIP ideologies. It is argued that UKIPs immigration propaganda, shares a commonality with repeated forms of right-wing ideologies during the 1930s.

Date of Award	Jun 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Abertay University
Supervisor	James Moir (Supervisor)