Cobyn Report FINAL - Goldsmiths, University of London · 2018. 2. 27. · –––– Academic Report on Journalistic Representations of Jeremy Corbyn –––– -1-Foreword: As

Media@LSE*Report*

Journalistic*Representations*of*Jeremy*Corbyn*in*the*British*Press:*

*From%Watchdog%to%Attackdog%

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––––AcademicReportonJournalisticRepresentationsofJeremyCorbyn––––

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Foreword:Asmedia and communication scholarswe have been troubled by the problematicway inwhich theBritishmediahas systematically attacked JeremyCorbynever sincehe came tonationalprominence in thesummerof2015.At thesametime,wealsoacknowledgethatthemedianeeds to fulfill an importantwatchdog role in ademocracy. Indeed,weexpectand value ourmedia to be critical and to ask difficult and probing questions of those inpositionsofpower.Jeremy Corbyn is an unconventional party leader in a British context,more leftwing thanprevious leaders of the Labour Party, contesting the neoliberal common sense andpromoting an anti-austerity and anti-war agenda. The question we pose here is to whatextentthiswarrantedtheacerbicandovertlyaggressivemediareactionhehasconsistentlyreceivedoverthelastyear?IsitacceptableforthemediatodelegitimisetosuchanextentalegitimatedemocraticactorwhoistheleaderofthemainoppositionpartyinBritishpolitics?This study, undertaken by the LSE’s Media and Communications Department, set out toempirically analyse the nature of themedia representation of Jeremy Corbyn in 8 Britishnewspapers from1 September– 1November2015. First, it distinguishesbetween criticalreporting and what we call antagonistic reporting. Second, it aims to demonstrate andassess theways inwhichtheBritishpresssystematicallydelegitimisedJeremyCorbynasapoliticalleader.The resultsof this study show that JeremyCorbynwas representedunfairlyby theBritishpressthroughaprocessofvilificationthatwentwellbeyondthenormallimitsoffairdebateanddisagreementinademocracy.Corbynwasoftendeniedhisownvoiceinthereportingonhimandsourcesthatwereanti-Corbyntendedtooutweighthosethatsupporthimandhis positions. He was also systematically treated with scorn and ridicule in both thebroadsheet and tabloid press in away that no other political leader is or has been. Evenmore problematic, the British press has repeatedly associated Corbynwith terrorism andpositionedhimasafriendoftheenemiesoftheUK.Theresulthasbeenafailuretogivethenewspaperreadingpublicafairopportunitytoformtheirownjudgementsabouttheleaderofthecountry’smainopposition.The overall conclusion from this is that in this case UK journalism played an attackdog,ratherthanawatchdog,role.This isunhealthyfromademocraticpointofviewandposesserious ethical questions as to the role of the media in a democracy, especially when itconcernsthelegitimatecontestationoftheGovernmentoftheday.Whenademocracy cannot rely on its press toprovide its citizenswith information aboutpolitical parties thatmeets the basic standards of fairness, thenwe can expect a politicalprocess that isequallyunbalanced.Recenteventsmayhaveprovidedbroaderevidenceofthisdisturbingtrend.NICKCOULDRY,HEAD,DEPARTMENTOFMEDIAANDCOMMUNICATIONSBARTCAMMAERTS,DEPARTMENTOFMEDIAANDCOMMUNICATIONS1July2016


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JournalisticRepresentationsofJeremyCorbynintheBritishPress:

FromWatchdogtoAttackdog

BartCammaerts,BrooksDeCillia,JoãoMagalhãesandCésarJimenez-MartínezLondonSchoolofEconomicsandPoliticalScience

IntroductionIn a democracy, we expect journalists to fulfill a set of roles. In the liberal tradition, themedia need to be our watchdogs, holding decision-makers to account and highlightingabuses.However, at the same time, themedia is also known to fulfill a collaborative rolewherebymedia owners, editors and journalists align themselveswith the interests of theestablishmentand thepowers thatbe.Asa resultof this, leftwingpartiesand ideashavehistoricallyreceivedaroughtreatmentintheUK.ItwasRalphMiliband,thefatherofDavidandEd,whonotedattheendofthe1960sthat:

thepressmaywell claim tobe independentand to fulfill an importantwatchdog function.What the claim overlooks, however, is the very large fact that it is the Left at which thewatchdogsgenerallybarkwithmost ferocity,andwhat theyareaboveallprotecting is thestatusquo(1969:page199).

In other words, the monitorial role in conjunction with a collaborative role towards thepolitical establishment can also lead to journalistic transgressions whereby the watchdogbecomes an attackdog blatantly delegitimising political actors that dare to challenge thestatusquo.OnthebasisofanextensivecontentanalysisofarepresentativesampleofthecoverageofJeremyCorbynineightBritishnewspapers,weargueanddemonstratethatthewatchdoghasbecomeanattackdog.WewillalsoconcludethatthisposesseriousquestionsregardingtheroleofjournalisminademocraticsocietysuchastheUK.On12September2015,JeremyCorbynwaselectednewleaderofthelargestandarguablyonlyoppositionparty in theUK.Corbyncan inmanywaysbedescribedassomewhatofapoliticalmaverick;apoliticaltransgressoranddeviatorwhorefusestoalignhimselfwiththemores and quirkiness of the British political establishment. Unlike other recent Labourleaders,Corbyn isanunabasheddemocraticsocialist,anardentanti-austeritychampion,arebellious Member of Parliament with a long history of bucking party discipline, a long-standing anti-war and anti-nuclear activist, and a staunch republican in a country with awidelysupportedmonarchy.The way the British mainstream media reacted to him could, in our view, likewise bedenoted as transgressive. In order tomake this claimweundertook a systematic analysisand assessment of the nature of the UK newspaper’s representation of Corbyn. In whatfollowswewillpresentourfindings,amethodologicalnotecanbefoundinAppendix1.


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TheMediaRepresentationofJeremyCorbynFirst,weassessedtheoveralltoneofthearticles.OntheonehandwelookedforapositivetonetowardsCorbynoramoreneutralone.Ontheotherhand,wedistinguishedbetween1) a critical tone, which corresponds more to a legitimate watchdog role, and 2) anantagonistic tone,whichcouldbeseenasan indicator forattackdog journalism.Arguably,the tone of the article represented a rather crude way of presenting the results, so wewantedtohaveabettersenseofthewaysinwhichthisattackdogmentalitytowardsCorbynmanifesteditself.Threespecificformsofdelegitimizationwereidentified:

• throughlackofvoiceormisrepresentation• throughscorn,ridiculeandpersonalattacks• throughassociation

Eachofthesemechanismsintheirownrightareproblematicdemocratically,butitisaboveall the combination of the three forms feeding each other that has in our view verydetrimentalconsequencesfordemocraticlifeintheUK.

OverallToneAssessingtheoveralltoneofthearticle isnotalwaysstraightforward,especiallythesubtledifference between a legitimate critical stance and an antagonistic one is both importantand at times difficult to discern. Despite this, the so-called Inter-Coder reliability of thisvariable,whichmeasuresthevalidityofthevariable,wasveryhighandconsistent(96%).Figure1:OveralltoneofthearticletowardsJeremyCorbyn

The antagonistic tone refers to the delegitimisation of Jeremy Corbyn by being scathing,disingenuous,insultingormocking.Acriticaltonereferstoamonitorialattitude,somethingwe would expect from themedia, i.e. to be critical but in ameasured and even-handed

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

TheGuardian(n=212)

TheDailyMirror(n=61)

TheIndependent(n=85)

EveningStandard(n=57)

DailyMail(n=95)

TheDailyTelegraph(n=115)

DailyExpress(n=35)

TheSun(n=152)

TOTAL(n=812)

Posikve Neutral Crikcal Antagoniskc


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manner. Of note here is that almost 3/5 of all articles we coded (57%) were critical orantagonisticand2/3ofallopinionpieces(67%)codedintheperiodofanalysiswerecriticalorantagonistic1. The IndependentPressStandardsOrganization's (IPSO)ethical guidelinesstipulatethatwhilenewspapersare‘freetoeditorialiseandcampaign’,theyareatthesametimeobligedto ‘makeacleardistinctionbetweencomment,conjectureandfact’.When itcomestothereportingonJeremyCorbynthisethicalguidelinehasnotbeenadheredto.Furthermore,ourstatisticalanalysis foundanassociationbetweenmediaorganizationandtone2.Especially,therightwingnewspapershaveverylittleoralmostnothingpositivetosayaboutCorbynandtheantagonistictoneisalsomuchmorepronouncedinthesenewspapers(see Figure 1). The degree of positive exposure in the leftwing and centrist press is a bithigher,but itwouldbefairtosaythatalsotherethesupportforJeremyCorbyn isatbestlukewarm. Despite this, however, we noticed in The Guardian, The DailyMirror and TheIndependentaremarkablylessantagonistictoneandpositioningcomparedtotherightwingnewspapers.

DelegitimisationthroughLackofVoiceorDistortionAnimportantwayinwhichCorbynwasdeligitimisedbythepressrelatestothepresenceofCorbyn’svoiceinhisownmediarepresentation(orthelackthereof)andalsotohowhisownvoice is represented in the reporting on him. Our results offered evidence of themainlyantagonistic stance towards the Labour politician. To a large extent, Corbyn wasdelegitimisedormisrepresentedasapoliticalactor.Hisvoicewasnotonlylargelyignoredinmanyinstances,buthiswordswerealsooftendistortedandtakenoutofcontext.LetusfirstfocusontheuseofsourcesinthereportingaboutCorbyn.AsTable1shows,Corbynhimselfisoftenabsentasasourceinthereportingonhim(56%ofarticlesonhimdoesnotgivehimanyvoiceatall.Whatissurprising,though,isthatarticlesinTheGuardianandTheIndependentthatuseCorbynasasourcearerelativelylow(around40%), this can be explained by the high level of opinion pieces on him in these papers.Conversely,TheDailyMirror,TheDailyMailandTheDailyExpressseemtouseCorbynasasourceaboveaverage(respectivelyabout87%,66%and89%ofthearticles).Table1:SourcesusedinthereportingonJeremyCorbyn

Corbyn3 LabourPro-Corbyn4

LabourAnti-

Corbyn5

Conservatives6

Lib-Dems7 UnionLeaders8

Guardian(n=212) 42% 29% 27% 18% 3% 9%

DailyMirror(n=61) 87% 26% 38% 39% 8% 2%

Independent(n=85) 37% 13% 24% 12% 1% 2%

EveningStandard(n=57) 47% 11% 28% 12% 2% 4%

DailyTelegraph(n=115) 20% 7% 28% 15% 0% 3%

DailyMail(n=95) 66% 44% 41% 33% 2% 1%

DailyExpress(n=35) 89% 6% 34% 29% 0% 3%

Sun(n=152) 25% 26% 19% 15% 1% 5%

TOTAL(n=812): 44% 23% 28% 20% 2% 5%


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Members of the Conservative Party are also often used as a source critiquing Corbyn,especially in the right-wingnewspapersTheDailyMail (33%)andTheDailyExpress (29%),butalsointheleft-wingtabloidTheDailyMirror(39%);thisisarguablypartofthelegitimateroleofthemediatoprovidebalanceintheirreporting.UnionleadersarerelativelyabsentinthereportingaboutCorbynandwhentheyareusedasasource,especiallyintherightwingnewspapers, it is often to discredit Corbyn. This is consistent with the historical negativemediarepresentationandtheoveralllackofunionvoicesinthepublicdebateintheUK(seePhilo,etal.,1995).AtellingobservationemergingfromTable1,relatestothedifferencesbetweentheLaboursourcesthatareinfavourversusthosethatareagainstCorbynastheirpartyleader.Inmanynewspapers the voice of Labour sources that are against Corbyn outweigh those that aresupportinghim.ThisisespeciallythecaseinTheIndependent,TheDailyTelegraphandTheDailyExpress,butalso inthe leftwingtabloidTheDailyMirror.This isanexpressionofthecivil war taking place within Labour. Exposing this could be seen as being part of thewatchdogroleofthemediaandisalsoveryvisibleintheleft-wingandliberalnewspapers.At the same time, however, the great discrepancy between Labour voices in favour ofCorbynandagainstinTheDailyTelegraph(7%proversus28%anti)orTheDailyExpress(6%pro versus 34% anti) are clear indications of a more antagonistic rather than a criticalagenda.Besides this, when we exclude opinion pieces and letters to the editor from the sample(n=391)wegetanevenmoreoutspokenpictureofthispolarization.OntheleftofFigure2,we can see the number of news articles that exclusively used pro-Corbyn voices (Corbynhimself, sources fromhis campaign, pro-Corbyn Labour sources or union sources), on theright, we find the amount of articles that exclusively gave a voice to anti-Corbyn sources(Anti-CorbynLaboursources,sourcesfromtheConservativePartyoracombinationofboth),inthemiddlewecanfindarticlesthatusedbothpro-andanti-Corbynvoices.Figure 2: Per Cent of Articles in Respective Publications using exclusively Pro-Corbynsources,Anti-CorbynSourcesoramixofboth9

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Pro-Corbyn(Facilitakve)-n=106

Balanced(Monitorial)-n=158

Ank-Corbyn(Antagonoskc)-n=127

TheGuardian(n=155) TheDailyMirror(n=33)

TheIndependent(n=77) TheEveningStandard(n=95)

TheDailyMail(n=69) TheDailyTelegraph(n=67)

TheDailyExpress(n=24) TheSun(n=90)

TOTAL(n=610)


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The reporting of The Daily Mirror is most balanced with almost 60% of its news articlesaboutCorbynusingsourcesfromboththepro-andanti-Corbyncamps,similarlyandmoresurprisingly The Daily Mail and The Daily Express also have a high degree of balancedreporting, mixing pro- and anti-Corbyn sources in its news-reporting about Corbyn(respectively 43% and 49% of news articles)10. As was to be expected, however, therightwingnewspapers tend to carrymorearticles thatexclusively relyon sources thatareanti-Corbyn;TheDailyMail andThe Evening Standard are exceptions in this regard. In allotherrightwingnewspapersbetween30to35%ofarticlesexclusivelyusesourcesthatareanti-Corbyn. About 1/5 of news articles inTheGuardian also, arguably, lack balance. Thisagainshouldbeseeninthecontextoftheturf-warwithinLabourandarelativelynegativetonetowardsCorbynthatisalsoapparentinthemoreleftwingnewspapers.As Table 2 makes apparent, Corbyn’s voice, even when acknowledged, was also oftendistorted;inmorethan1/5ofthetotalsample(22%)hisviewsweretakenoutofcontext.Insum,slightlylessthan3/4ofthenewscontent(74%)offeredeithernoorahighlydistortedaccount of Corbyn’s views and ideas. Unsurprisingly, his views are mostly taken out ofcontext in the rightwing newspapers, especially in The Evening Standard, The DailyTelegraph and The Daily Express. As was to be expected, The Guardian did give Corbynsomewhat of a platform as his voicewithout alterationwas present in almost 27% of itscoverage.Corbyndidnotgetanyplatformatallintherightwingnewspapersandthisisverypronounced.Table2:ReproductionofCorbyn’sviews11 Corbyn’s

ViewsAbsentCorbyn‘sviewspresentbuttakenoutofcontext

Corbyn’sviewspresent,butchallenged

Corbyn’sviewspresentwithoutalteration

Guardian(n=212) 44% 18% 11% 27%

DailyMirror(n=61) 48% 12% 25% 16%

Independent(n=85) 60% 15% 8% 17%

EveningStandard(n=57) 54% 39% 5% 2%

DailyMail(n=95) 57% 20% 23% 0%

DailyTelegraph(n=115) 52% 29% 16% 4%

DailyExpress(n=35) 51% 37% 11% 0%

Sun(n=152) 55% 24% 18% 3%

TOTAL(n=812): 52% 22% 15% 11%

Atellingexampleofhisviewsbeingdeliberatelyandmaliciouslydistortedbytherightwingmedia was the resurfacing at the end of October 2015 of a statement hemade in 2013regardingthe100thyearcommemorationoftheFirstWorldWar.Initstypicaljingoisticstylethe rightwing newspapers laid into Corbyn for having declared at the time thatcommemorating the FirstWorldWarwas ‘pointless’ (TheDaily Express), for ‘questioning’thecommemorations(TheDailyTelegraph)andfor‘denouncing’thehighbudgetsspentonthem(TheDailyMail).WhatCorbynactuallysaidatthetimewas:


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[…] apparently next year the government is proposing to spend shedloads of moneycommemoratingtheFirstWorldWar.I'mnotsurewhatthereistocommemorateabouttheFirstWorldWarotherthanthemassslaughterofmillionsofyoungmenandwomen,mainlymen,ontheWesternFrontandalltheotherplaces.[…]itwasawarofthedecliningempires(Corbyn,quotedinTheIndependent,2015)

These results relating to sourcesand ‘voice’ areevidently troublesome fromademocraticperspective.Allowinganimportantandlegitimatepoliticalactor,i.e.theleaderofthemainopposition party, to develop their own narrative and have a voice in the public space isparamount inademocracy.Denyingsuchan importantpoliticalactoravoiceordistortinghis views and ideas through the exercise ofmediated power is highly problematic. Therewere,however,alsoothermechanismsatplaywhichwereequally,ifnotmore,problematicintermsofdelegitimisingCorbynasapoliticalactor.Oneof thesewastheuseofridicule,scornandpersonalattacks.

DelegitimisationthroughRidicule,ScornandPersonalAttacksMuch of the newspaper coverage of Corbyn — simply put — ridicules the new Labourleader.Threeinten(30%)newsstories,editorials,commentaries,featuresorletterstotheeditormocktheleaderoftheoppositionorscoffathisideas,policies,history,hispersonallife — and, alarmingly, even his looks. Much of the coverage is clearly patronizing andscornful.Unsurprisingly,we founda strongassociationbetween ridicule and scornon theone hand and personal attacks on the other in the eight publications we examined12.Similarly, statistical analysis (two-sided Fisher's exact test) confirmed an associationbetweenpublicationsandpersonalattacks(p=.001).Table3:Ridicule,ScornandPersonalAttackbyNewspaper Ridicule&Scorn PersonalAttacks

Guardian(n=212) 5% 5%

DailyMirror(n=61) 15% 6%

Independent(n=85) 4% 6%

EveningStandard(n=57) 47% 26%

DailyMail(n=95) 54% 11%

DailyTelegraph(n=115) 38% 16%

DailyExpress(n=35) 80% 40%

Sun(n=152) 45% 17%

TOTAL(n=812) 30% 13%

AsTable3makesapparent,whencomparingleftwingnewspaperswithrightwingones,thelatterare90%more likelytoheapridiculeorscornontheLabour leaderthantheir liberalcounterparts. Much of the coverage is clearly patronizing. The long-serving Member ofParliament for Islington North frequently gets reduced to the journalistic shorthand of acaricature.Heisoftenportrayedasaclown-likefigure,mockedasthe‘Jezster’orderisivelydismissed as the comic political equivalent of the child-like TV sitcom characterMr. Beanwith tabloid media repeatedly referring to him as ‘Mr. Corbean’. It is noteworthy here,


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however,thatTheDailyMirrortoacertaindegreealsoridiculedCorbyn.Forexample,PaulRoutledgecalled‘Jezza's’reluctancetousenuclearweapons‘naïve’(Routledge,2015).Theso-called‘beardedsocialist’(TheDailyTelegraph)oftengetssneeredatforhislooksandthewayhedresses (abitmore than7%ofarticles refer tohisdress-style).Of thearticlesthatcontainapersonalattack(n=102),astaggering69%referstohislook,hisclothingandhis lifestyle, a further 13% relates to Corbyn’s love life. Several commentaries moralisedabout Corbyn’s personal and romantic life. The Daily Telegraph sarcastically ridiculed theLabour leader’s former relationshipwith shadowministerDianeAbbott. The commentarycapriciously also folded in a political critique questioning what attracted the pair to oneanother:

“Loversofwhat?”Bolshevism?Marx&Spencer?Awarmvesttokeepoutthechillwindsofthepoliticalwilderness?(Woods,2015).

Morethananyothernewspaper,TheSunsensationalizedCorbyn’srelationshipwithAbbotand the break-up of his first marriage. Calling the Labour leader ‘The Sexpot Trot’, therightwing tabloiddescribes indetailhowCorbyn’s ‘lover’hadcommandedhis firstwife to‘getoutoftown’(Cooke,2015).PlentyofthenewspapercoveragealsosuggestedthatCorbyn’ssartorialandlifestylechoicesmake him seem weird, unconventional — and decidedly unelectable. A week after hiselectionasleaderoftheopposition,AllisonPearsoninTheDailyTelegraphartfullyweavedallofthesneeringcriticismsintoaone-sentencedepiction:

a rather dreary bearded fellowwho takes pictures ofmanhole covers as a hobby, doesn'tdrink alcohol or eat meat, and wears shorts teamed with long dark socks exposing anexpanseofpale,hairyEnglishshin.(Pearson,2015)

Ouranalysisfoundthattheridiculeandscornalsotendedtoincreaseovertimewith25%ofthecoverageexhibitingridiculeandscornbeforehiselectionaspartyleader(12September)to33%ofthearticlesanalysedinthelasttwoweeksofOctober2015.Alsopersonalattacksincrease(slightly)afterCorbynwaselectedaspartyleader.Whereas10%ofarticlescontainapersonalattackbeforehewaselectedthisrisesto14%ofthearticlesintheperioddirectlyafter he was elected. Personalisation of politics is not a new phenomenon (see Langer,2007), but the vengefulness and sneering tone with which Corbyn’s character wasassassinated,wasquestionableanddamaging.

DelegitimisationthroughAssociationA final – and arguablemost harmful – way in which Corbyn was deligitimised is throughsubtle and less subtle forms of association. Across our corpus we found evidence of theBritishpressdiscreditingCorbynbydescribinghis ideas asmador crazy, andhimself as aterroristfriendandadangerous,evensinister,individual.AsFigure2shows,many journalistsandcommentatorsdescribetheLabour leaderandhispoliticalideasas‘loony’,‘unrealistic’,or‘outdated’.Rightwingnewspapers,suchasTheDailyTelegraph, and tabloids like The Daily Express and The Sun, emphasized the supposed‘radicalism’and‘insane’natureofhispoliticalproposals.Besidesdescribingleftwingideasasloony, theyarealsoseenasunrealisticandhighlyunlikely todeliveranelectionvictory toLabour,somethingtheleftwingandliberalnewspapersalsopicksupon.


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Figure2:Numberofmentionsinthearticle

Before his election as party leader an astonishing 42% of the coverage framed CorbynessentiallyasaCommunist,whetheritwasbycallinghimpartofthe‘hardorradical-left’,a‘Marxist’,a‘Leninist’ora‘Trots’.Ontheeveofhiselection,forexample,TheSuncalledhim‘agormlessMarxist’(Liddle,2015).InapiecepublishedinTheSunendofNovember2015,CorbynwasevenpicturednexttoLenin(cf.Figure3).ThisisinlinewithalonglegacyintheUK of discrediting the left by associating their ideas and their leaders withMarxism andCommunism(seeCurran,etal.,2005).Figure3:LeninandCorbyninTheSun,30November2015

Source:Hawkes,2015Another prevalent media frame in the reporting of Jeremy Corbyn was geared towardspositioninghimasunpatrioticandashatingBritain; thiswas (again)especially thecase in

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Loony

Insane/Mad/ Unrealiskc RadicalLex/Marxist

1970s-1980s Unpatriokc/HakngUK

Guardian(n=212) DailyMirror(n=61) Independent(n=85)

EveningStandard(n=57) DailyMail(n=95) DailyTelegraph(n=115)

DailyExpress(n=35) Sun(n=152)


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therightwingnewspapers13;forexample27%ofthearticlesaboutCorbyninTheDailyMailcarried this frame. Intrinsically linked to the hating Britain frame was a very strong andhighly problematic association of Corbyn with terrorism and with being a friend of theenemiesoftheUK(seeFigure4).TheSun,forexample,describedCorbynassomeone‘whodelights in describing as friends every possible enemy of this country’ (Liddle, 2015 –emphasisinoriginal).Inparticular,Corbynwasportrayedasasupporterorassomeonehaving‘linkswith’theIRA,Hamas,Hezbollah,Iran,orterrorismmoreingeneral.TheDailyExpress (2015)condemnedCorbynforhaving‘suspicioustiestoterrorgroups’,whereasTheSun,calledhimasupporteroftheIRAand‘anyheavilybeardedjihadimentals[sic]wholongforthedestructionoftheWest’ (Liddle, 2015). Along the same lines, in The Daily Telegraph Allison Pearsonsarcasticallywonderedifinsteadofhummus,CorbynmightinfacthaveaweaknessforthePalestinianSunni-IslamicorganizationHamas:

HummusmadebyHamas,wouldbeCorbyn'sideaofmannafromheaven.Well,notheaven,obviously,buttheatheist,socialistparadisetowhichthedorkwill leadusinthefullnessoftime, once he's confiscated our debit cards, our Army and our evil, biased newspapers(Pearson,2015)

Figure4:AssociationwithIRA,Iran,Hamas,Hezbollahand/orTerrorism14

This damming and problematic association with terrorism or denoting him as a friend ofthosedeemedtobeenemiesoftheU.K.alsofedintoabroaderframethatdepictedCorbynas a danger or as a dangerous individual. Even theBritish PrimeMinister could not resistfeeding this danger frame. Just after Corbynwas elected as party leader, David Camerontweeted:

The LabourParty isnowa threat toournational security, oureconomic security andyourfamily'ssecurity.(@David_Cameron,13Sept2015).

AsTable4clearlydemonstrates,however,thedangerframewas(andarguablestill is)alsobeing pushed by Labour politicians and by journalists. Denoting Corbyn as a danger ordangerousbypoliticiansoftheLabourPartyisyetanotherindicationofthecivilwarbeing

0%2%4%6%8%10%12%14%16%18%20%


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wagedwithintheLabourParty,somethingwhichcouldbeobservedthroughoutthecorpus.Linked to this is also theongoing frameofpersistent references topossible andpotentialcoupattemptsagainstCorbyn.Table4:DenotingCorbynasadangerorasbeingdangerousandbywhom15 Corbyn

denotedasdangerousora

danger

Byjournalist

ByNon-LabourPolitician

ByLabourPolitician

Guardian(n=212) 17% 2% 5% 6%

DailyMirror(n=61) 20% 3% 8% 7%

Independent(n=85) 7% 1% 4% 1%

EveningStandard(n=57) 4% 2% 2% 0%

DailyMail(n=95) 18% 8% 5% 4%

DailyTelegraph(n=115) 50% 22% 4% 18%

DailyExpress(n=35) 63% 49% 6% 9%

Sun(n=152) 16% 9% 2% 1%

TOTAL(n=812): 22% 9% 4% 6%

Ithastobenotedthoughthatincontrastwithscornandpersonalattackswhichincreasedinthelaterstagesoftheperiodofanalysis,mostoftheseveryemotivenegativeframes,suchasthecommunistoneorthereferencestoCorbynbeingunpatrioticandaterroristfriendoradanger,diminishedsomewhatovertime.Thecommunistframehalvedto22%ofthetotalcoverage in the latterpartof theperiodofanalysis (from06/10to01/11/2015).Likewise,while18%ofthecoverageemphasizedtheanti-patrioticframebeforehewaselectedpartyleader, 5%of the coverage contained this frame in the lastpartof theperiodof analysis.Also,theassociationwithterroristgroupsdroppedto5%ofthecoverage.Thedangerframeseems to loose strength over time, but clearly not as much as the other ones. While astaggering 35% of the coverage denoted Corbyn as dangerous before his election, thisreducedsomewhat to22% in the first twoweeksafterhiselectionand to13% in the lasttwoweeksoftheanalysis.Mediated power, Roger Silverstone (1999: 143) so aptly noted, is ultimately about thepower‘tocreateandsustainmeanings;topersuade,endorseandreinforce’,butalsorelatesto ‘[t]he power to undermine’. As the results of our content analysis have shown, thepredominantwayinwhichtheBritishnewspapersuseditsmediatedpowervis-à-visCorbynwastoundermineandtodelegitimizetheleaderofthemainoppositionpartyintheUK.


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ConclusionWe originally set out to provide a nuanced perspective acknowledging and wanting toaccountforthewatchdogroleofthemediabydifferentiatingbetweenontheonehandthelegitimate role of the newspapers to critique and to question the Labour Party and itsleadershipandontheotherhandavirulentandacerbicantagonistic tonedelegitimisingalegitimate political actor. To some extent this did come out of the analysis; somenewspapersdidfulfillanimportantwatchdogrole.However,whatemergedmuchstrongeris an overall picture ofmost newspapers systematically vilifying the leader of the biggestoppositionparty,assassinatinghischaracter,ridiculinghispersonalityanddelegitimisinghisideasandpolitics.AsthequoteofMilibandSr.attheoutsetofthisreportalreadypointedout,thisisnotanentirelynewphenomenonintheUKandhashappenedbeforeinrelationtootherleftwingleadersfromNeilKinnocktoEdMiliband(seeCurran,etal.,2005;Gabor,2014), but in the case of Corbyn the degree of antagonism and hatred from part of themediahasarguablyreachednewheights.This can, in part, be explained by the newspapers’ over-reaction to Jeremy Corbyn, apoliticianwhorefusestoplaythepartthattheBritishestablishmentcarvesoutforpoliticalleaders inapositionofauthority.Someargue thatasa resultof thisCorbyndeserves thekindofnegativemediarepresentationsheisgetting(Grice,2016).Someonewhorockstheboatlikehedoesislikelytogetwet.However,whileCorbynmightbeapoliticaltransgressorin some ways, this does not in itself legitimate the high levels of antagonistic anddelegitimisingcoveragehehasbeengetting.Corbyn is systematically ridiculed, scorned and the object of personal attacks by mostnewspapers.EvenmoreproblematicwereasetofassociationswhichdeligitimisedCorbynasapolitician,callinghimloony,unpatriotic,aterroristfriendandadangerousindividual.Ithastobenotedthoughthatwhereasridiculeandscorn increased intime, themorehard-hittingandemotiveframessuchascallinghimacommunistoraterroristfrienddiminishedovertime.Inthisregard,thequestioncouldbeaskedwhetherthisamountstoanunstatedmeaculpa,anacknowledgementthatthenewspaperswereover-eggingtheircake intheirreportingofCorbyn?WiththevastmajorityoftheBritishnewspaperssituatedmoderatelytofirmlyontherightofthepoliticalspectrum,theanalysisofourdataalsopointstoastrongideologicalbias.TherightwingnewspaperswereparticularlynegativeandacerbictowardsCorbyn.Atthesametime,wecouldalsoclearlyobserveadegreeofanti-Corbynreportingintheleft-leaningandliberalnewspapers.Thiswasespeciallyvisiblethroughtheamplificationofinternalstrugglesand tensions within the Labour Party regarding Corbyn. This manifested itself by thenewspapersprovidinganextensiveandenthusiasticplatformtothoseforcesintheLabourParty that aggressively contested Corbyn andwhat he stands for. Arguably, exposing theinternaltensionswithintheLabourPartycouldbeseenaspartofthewatchdogroleofthemedia.However,aspointedoutabove,therewasquiteaconsiderableamountofcoveragethatwasveryone-sided,onlygivingvoicetothosethatareagainstCorbynandatthesametimeignoringthosethatareinfavourofhimandhispolicies.To conclude, the degree of viciousness and antagonism with which the majority of theBritish newspapers have treated Corbyn is deemed to be highly problematic from ademocraticperspective. If,astheBritishphilosopherOnoraO’Neill (2002)alsoargued,thehigh degree of media power needs to be accompanied by a high degree of media anddemocratic responsibility, is it thenacceptable that themajorityof theBritishnewspapers


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usesitsmediatedpowertoattackanddelegitimisetheleaderofthelargestoppositionpartyagainst a rightwing government to such an extent and with such vigour? By posing thisquestioninthewaywedo,wealsoimplythatthisisnotmerelyapoliticalquestion,butalsoanethicalandademocraticone.Certainlydemocraciesneedtheirmediatochallengepowerand offer robust debate, butwhen this transgresses into an antagonism that undermineslegitimate political voices that dare to contest the current status quo, then it is notdemocracythatisserved.Acknowledgements:Theauthorswould liketothanktheLSEDepartmentofMediaandCommunicationsfor itssupport.Besidesthis, theauthorsalsowould liketoextendtheirgratitudetoJaeAron,TomasBorsa,RachelChoong, Lu Fang, Rosanna Hutchings, Bhavan Jaipragas, Zhiyi Li, Deirdre Livingston, Sam Mejias,BingchunMeng,GiorgiaSalvaticoandNataliSchejtman,fortheirvaluablehelpinmakingthisprojectpossible. We also express our appreciation towards Nick Couldry and Charlie Beckett for theircommentsonanearlierdraft.


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References:Bauer,MartinW.(2007)ClassicalContentAnalysis:AReview,pp.131-51inMartinW.Bauerand

GeorgeGaskell(eds)QualitativeResearchingwithText,ImageandSound.London:Sage.Cooke,Harriet(2015)JezGetOutofMyWay;HowhisloverDiane'toldhertogo'.TheSun,20

September.Curran,James,Petley,JulianandGaber,Ivor(2005)CultureWars:TheMediaandTheBritishLeft.

Edinburgh:EdinburghUniversityPress.Franzosi,Roberto(2004)FromWordstoNumbers:Narrative,DataandSocialScience.Cambridge:

CambridgeUniversityPress.Gaber,Ivor(2014)The‘othering’of‘RedEd’,orhowtheDailyMail‘framed’theBritishLabourleader.

PoliticalQuarterly85(4):471-79.Grice,Andrew (2016) JeremyCorbynhasa toxic relationshipwith themedia–buthe’s theone to

blame.TheIndependent,11May.Hawkes,Steve(2015)LabourMPswarned:DefyJezonSyriabombingvoteandyou’rewritingyour

politicalobituary.TheSun,30November.Krippendorff,Klaus(2013)ContentAnalysis:AnIntroductiontoitsMethodology.ThousandOaks,CA:

Sage.Langer,AnaInés(2007)AHistoricalExplorationofthePersonalisationofPoliticsinthePrintMedia:

TheBritishPrimeMinisters(1945–1999).ParliamentaryAffairs60(3):371-87.Liddle,Ron(2015)CorbynvictorywillendLabourasweknowit.TheSun,9September.Miliband,Ralph(1969)TheStateinCapitalistSociety:TheAnalysisoftheWesternSystemofPower.

London:QuartetBooksLtd.O’Neill,Onora(2002)LicensetoDeceive.ReithLectures–Lecture5:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2002/lecture5.shtmlPearson,Allison(2015)CitizenCorbynisbehavinglikeabrat.TheDailyTelegraph,16September.Philo,Greg,Hewitt,JohnandBeharrell,Peter(1995)“Andnowthey’reoutagain”:Industrialnews,

pp.3-20inGregPhilo(Ed.)GlasgowMediaGroupReader,Volume2:Industry,Economy,WarandPolitics,London:Routledge.

Rendon,MaríaJoséandNicolas,Guerda(2012)DeconstructingthePortrayalofHaitainWomenintheMedia:AThematicAnalysisofImagesinTheAssociatedPressArchive.PsychologyofWomenQuarterly36(2):227-39.

Routledge,Paul(2015)AqueuetokillCorbyn,andtheywon’tbekillinghimwithkindness.TheDailyMirror,2October.

Silverstone,Roger(1999)WhyStudytheMedia?.London,Sage.TheDailyExpress(2015)Corbynisunelectable.TheDailyExpress,26September.TheIndependent(2015)WhatJeremyCorbynactuallysaidaboutcommemoratingtheFirstWorld

War.2November.Woods,Judith(2015)Jeremy'sredrosewillneverbeoneoftheboys.TheDailyTelegraph,18

September.


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Appendix1:MethodologicalNotesA Content Analysis (CA) proved to be an effective tool for investigating the mediarepresentationsofLabour’sJeremyCorbyn.ConsiderableresearchhighlightstheefficacyofCAforsynthesizinglargeamountsofmediaforcriticalresearch(Bauer,2007;Krippendorff,2013).Forthisstudy’sanalysis,reportingabouttheLabourleaderwasturned,asthetitleofFranzosi’s(2004)bookelegantlysuggests,FromWordstoNumbers.ThiswasdonewithaneyetocapturingthetoneandtenorofthenewsmediacoverageofCorbyn’sleadership.Asthefindingsandanalysismakesclear,CAofferedareliableandsystematicmeanstocapturethecomplexnatureofthemediatedrepresentationsofthenewLabourleader.Table1:Sampling16

DailyCirculationandDailyUniqueBrowsers(2015)17

Ownership TypeofNewspaper

ExhaustivePopulation

nCoded

%Coded

Guardian 160.0008.9Million

GuardianMediaGroup

Broadsheet-leftwing

983 212 22%

DailyMirror 790.0004.2Million

TrinityMirror Tabloid-leftwing

301 61 20%

Independent 66.0002.9Million

AlexanderLebedev

Broadsheet-centrist

288 85 30%

EveningStandard

900.000480.000

AlexanderLebedev

MidMarket-rightwing

297 57 19%

DailyMail 1.6Million14.4Million

4thViscountRothermere

MidMarket-rightwing

358 95 27%

DailyTelegraph 470.0004.3Million

BarclayBrothers

Broadsheet-rightwing

420 115 27%

DailyExpress 400.000NA

RichardCliveDesmond

MidMarket-rightwing

171 35 20%

Sun 1.4Million2Million

RupertMurdoch

Tabloid-rightwing

599 152 25%

TOTALS: 3417 812 24%

Themedia texts analysed in this research (n=812)were harvested fromeight nationalUKnewspapers18(see Table 1 for a complete list). This random sample was drawn from anexhaustivepopulation (N=3,417)andrepresents24%of thetotalcoveragebythenationalnewspapersof JeremyCorbynbetween1September–1November2015.Thenewspaperarchive Lexiswasused to identify the corpusofmedia samples foranalysis. Three furtherperiodsweredelimitedtoenableatemporalanalysisacrossallothervariables:


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1) 01/09/15to12/09/15:finalweeksoftheleadershipcampaign2) 13/09/15to05/10/15:hiselectionaspartyleaderanditsaftermath3) 06/10/15to01/11/15:hisshakyconsolidationaspartyleader

As noted above, the search terms ‘Jeremy’ and ‘Corbyn’ yielded an exhaustive corpus of3,417 possible samples. Pulling every 4th media sampled produced a reliable probabilitysamplebecauseourstartingpointwasrandomlyselected(Krippendorff,2013).SimilartoRendonandNicolas(2012),atwo-stepapproachtodevelopingcodingcategorieswasemployed.AnanalysisofmediatextsrevealedrhetoricalpattersandconsistentframessurroundingCorbyn.Furthermore,thetrainingofcodersduringthepilotingphasealso ledtoimprovementsinthecodingframe.Thisprocessproducedalistof16variableswithsomevariablessplit-upintosub-variablessoastoenablemultipleoptionstobeselected.

In addition to the authors, twelve coders were trained to help with the coding of thecollected samples (see acknowledgements). Codersweremindful of applying a systematicinterpretationtoallthesamples(Bauer,2007;Krippendorff,2013).Coders—independentofeachotherandrandomlyselected—analyzed12%ofthesamesamples.Thisoverlapincoding(n=100)wassubsequentlyusedtocheckthereliabilityofthecodingtovalidatethisstudy’s findings. This process produced an intercoder reliability (ICR19: r= agree/[agree +disagree])above80percentforallvariables.TheaverageoftheICRwas95percent.Thishigh level of reliability points towards a well-defined coding scheme, a robust samplingvalidity and successful training sessions duringwhich codersweremade familiarwith theconceptualframework,thecodingframeandhowtoapplyittothemediacontent(Bauer,2007;Krippendorff,2013).


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EndNotes: 1Allpercentagesreportedinthisreportwereroundedoff2c2(21,N=812)=272.701,p=.0013c2(7,N=812)=145.096,p=.0014c2(7,N=812)=61.961,p=.0015c2(7,N=812)=18.505,p=.0016c2(7,N=812)=36.631,p=.0017c2(7,N=812)=15.671,p=.0288c2(7,N=812)=17.801,p=.0139Allthecrosstabulationsarestatisticallysignificantatthe0.05level.Articleswhichusenosourcesorarticleswhichexclusivelyusesourcesthatareneitherpro-noranti-Corbynareabsentfromthisgraph.10c2(21,N=532)=95.746,p=.00111c2(21,N=812)=126.157,p=.00112c2(7,N=812)=193.094,p=.00113c2(7,N=812)=59.570,p=.00114c2(7,N=812)=43.447,p=.00115c2(28N=812)=191.260,p=.00116ThesamplingincludedtheSundayeditionsofallthesenewspapers17Figuresfor2015publishedon31/03/2016byABC:http://www.newsworks.org.uk/write/MediaUploads/1%20Facts%20Figures/Market%20overview/2016/Mar/Newsbrand_Circulation_17_03_16.pptx[Lastconsulted18/04/2016]18Weinitiallyalsoplannedtocodebroadcastnews,whichtendstobemorebalanced,lackofresourcesandtimeconstraintsmadeusfocusonnewspapercoverage.Overall,itcouldalsobearguedthatdespitethedeclineofthenewspaperindustry,newspapersstillplayanimportantroleinthepublicsphere,theyoftensetatoneandshapethenewsagenda19Scott’sPi,nominalKrippendorff’salpha,andCohen'sKappaforallthevariables.

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