Brexit: Framing a Narrative

25/11/2020

This video by youtuber Tom Nicholas, while it is not solely on Brexit itself, is a deconstruction and analysis of the medias role within framing narratives.

Rooted in the understanding of how the press frames migrants coming to the UK for refuge, the story is deconstructed within the video of how through the types of questions and the specific people whom are interviewed show the perspective that the media has in framing migrants coming to the country.

To tie into the framing devices and the medias bias around this story that was hyped up as being large enough for everyone having to care, Tom Nicholas also goes into describing the book "Manufacturing Consent" by Noam Chomsky and the analysis of medias own bias through specifically profit motives and insular views of actual different ways of going about the world.

The press has this bias through its own understanding of Brexit through using framing devices to paint the essence of Brexit itself as being tainted as Nationalist, something only the right can profit off of.

A video about mainstream media bias. Timestamps: 00:00 "Fake News" 01:20 Introduction 04:34 The "Migrant Crisis" and the "Migrant Caravan" 07:28 Anatomy of a...

24/11/2020

These three are magazine tabloid headers from the UK.

Among the best way to actually understand the actual platformed perspectives of Brexit are by looking at the magazine tabloids, which these three work the best to actually portray. The Economist reads out a somewhat neutral, complicated tone that might be similar to articles written in Reuters where the discussion is primarily on platforming the ideas of economists and political analysts. It still has a bias solely due to the fact of the center position is still biased within the framework of the discussion.

The NewStatesman is a great tabloid to understand the perspective of a lot of Remainers who were worried about Brexit and didn't actually have a consistent position explained to them how Brexit could be good or bad, so they just saw the narratives surrounding the positions and figured they could decide off of that.

The Press and Journal comes off as a spectacle written by and for the right wing, the celebratory pose of Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the UK who rooted for Brexit to pass from the right wing.

Magazines and tabloids are large sellers of ideas and opinions that seem normal. A grocery stop for someone to be able to buy food for their family may see a magazine tabloid of Brexit setting things ablaze and worry about Brexit, or see Boris thumbs up about Brexit and feel warmth that their Prime Minister is optimistic (if they do like Boris in the first place that is). The perspective not really portrayed in these magazine tabloids though is a complex understanding of Brexit from the Left, and what their goal could be if they pushed for a left leaning Brexit policy.

24/11/2020

Brexit Beckons, the Book linked to a pdf download for the eBook, largely is a discussion among academics and economists on their view of what Brexit means, a break down of who is actually pro-Brexit, and the future of economics within the UK and the EU.

The main focus within this book of essays written by academics is to actually look at the broader academic understanding and the future of what may happen. Special in this discussion of the essays is actually the discussion around who voted for Brexit and the different meanings it has for people. This shows some data on who it effects, who cares for it, and largely what it even means to people within the society that it effects.

Within my research I used Reuters to actually understand the bias of some media on who is platformed and how they talk about Brexit. In these essays of the book the primary aspect is to actually try to more broadly understand the meaning of Brexit and its impact and perception.

https://voxeu.org/content/brexit-beckons-thinking-ahead-leading-economists

Explanation of book: https://voxeu.org/article/new-ebook-brexit-beckons

The 23 June 2016 Brexit vote saw British voters reject membership in the European Union. This column, which was first published in August 2016, introduces a VoxEU eBook containing 19 essays written by leading economists on a wide array of topics and from a broad range of perspectives.

24/11/2020

This podcast episode from Chapo Trap House, which is a left leaning podcast that is typically talking about politics in a comedic ways, this episode primarily focuses on interviewing Costasa Lapavitsas who is a professor of economics and member of the left-wing Syriza party in the Hellenic Parliament.

The main focus of this interview is actually looking at the discussion surrounding what a left-wing argument against the EU and understanding it economically and politically throughout history. Contrast this discussion to the typical main stream discussion around Brexit as a gigantic win for the far right, which continues to add into the framing for the right wing to make their own arguments and be platformed.

(youtube alternative for the podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh1YzNtPMNM)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4qqmVR4MijYSDj5CkMo98j?si=eW5s8vWOTb6giIjq4Qi4xg

Amber interviews economist and author Costas Lapavitsas about the European Union, how it works, its problems, how it relates to Brexit, and how we might think of it from a leftist perspective.

24/11/2020

In this video by the YouTuber Philosophy Tube the primary discussion focused is largely looking at what Democracy is, Democratic election results, and full confusion of what decisions are and what the results will be of the decisions.

The main focus on the misunderstanding of the Democratic elections is to focus on the discussion of Brexit as not really having a full understanding of what it was. Since a lot of people didn't know what it was they may have just bought into narratives around Brexit as being either a Nationalist right winger or not being a Nationalist right winger. With something like Brexit that will transition how politics and economics work within Britain and the EU, the lack of actual acknowledgement of what Brexit could mean or could effect things fully.

A Scifi Odyssey to the heart of democracy Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/PhilosophyTube Subscribe! http://tinyurl.com/pr99a46 Paypal.me/PhilosophyTube Wanna...

21/11/2020

Both of these pictures do the primary goal of adding into the framing that the right wants to make the Remainers seem like emotional and all about decorum and optics and should be laughed at, rather than actually addressing the real worries about Brexit. While the other shows an example of how Liberal outlets may make Brexit supporters seem like all angry anti-establishment types that just want to rush and force a change away from the established order of things.

Some of the pictures used in media is to paint Brexit as a single issue, that is solely a vote for whether or not you agree with Nigel Farage ect. Since it seemingly keeps the framing around Nigel Farage and other right wing politicians and pundits, the result is that some stances on Brexit aren't even seen in pictures or discussion boards.

Source of the angry protestor for pro-Brexit: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/brexit-latest-news-half-uk-voters-electorate-disgust-other-side-opposite-eu-european-union-lse-study-research-a7535566.html

Source of Nigel Farage being portrayed as "stable" and laughing at emotions around Brexit: https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/29/eu-officially-approves-boris-johnsons-brexit-deal-just-two-days-go-12148182/

21/11/2020

This meme I added the text to largely embodies the problem with the narrative around Brexit, how it became a very taboo subject to even support a position other than being against Brexit.

Largely this is a problem that came from the Left leaning party (Labour Party) in UK and their position they took on Brexit and the referendum, and its inconsistent actual messaging.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-election-corbyn-brexit/corbyn-i-would-stay-neutral-in-a-second-brexit-referendum-idUSKBN1XW26K

21/11/2020

Immigration was a large discussion from the right wing about why they wanted to pull out of the EU, and a framing from more Liberal establishments to frame the Brexit referendum as xenophobic.

While largely true, the discussion around Brexit being a part of the discussion about immigration and sentiments from liberal types that the Brexit campaign was largely xenophobic, the primary problem of the discussion is that according to NewStatesman, immigration isn't even heavily changed before and after Brexit, but was a large talking point due to the "Refugee Crisis" surrounding 2015.

Largely, the right seemed to adopt all the conversation surrounding Brexit and painted it as a way for the UK to drop immigration standards imposed by the EU. This was fed by mainstream media outlets that added into the talking points by letting the framing of Brexit to be solely on how the right wing wants to talk about Brexit.

Link to article graph is taken from: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2019/05/when-it-comes-immigration-uk-already-post-brexit-era

21/11/2020

Austerity, explained by Yanis Varoufakis in this video, is a discussion that surrounds Brexit that actually pushes a lot of Leftist to be against the EU as a "Gigantic Capitalist Club". Largely the issue around the discussion of Brexit is that the actual issues that are at hand with EU and what actual material problems there are, aren't discussed and anyone who comes out as pro-Brexit seemingly changes the discussion to anti-Immigrants and anti-Internationalism.

The main issue around Brexit for someone who has arguments surrounding the EU's stances on economic policy ect. is that the right wing and media outlets almost work together to keep actual arguments against the EU from being platformed as serious discussion.

At the Cambridge Union's London Debate, economist and DiEM25 co-founder Yanis Varoufakis explains why 'This house has lost confidence in austerity'.

21/11/2020

The discussion around Brexit, the debate between Remainers and the pro-Brexit is largely through framing a narrative of the other side of the debate. Largely through the means of framing Remainers as being too "emotional" and the narrative around pro-Brexit people as all being Nationalists. Looking at both of these narratives, we can find some truth but the lack of context and actual discussion.
I.e. Yes there are a lot of Remainers, who on the night of the referendum were pictures crying and mourning the loss, although the context usually is withdrawn from discussion of why it may be emotional, and who the groups are that were mourning; perhaps it was a theatric presentation? To add to the building of a narrative though, yes as can be seen through a Breitbart article, there is a wing of Nationalism that stems some of the debate around leaving the EU that can be loud, although with the narrative being put on people like Milo Yiannopoulos from Breitbart it seemingly took the narrative away from anyone who may actually have more of a Left leaning critique of the EU and why they may want to leave.

There's panic in the skyscrapers. A popular revolution against globalism is underway, and Britain has struck the first blow.