Abstract

Across the world, irregular migration remains a major flashpoint among political discourse. As with almost all critical issues, the mass media plays an integral role in shaping how events are viewed. When it comes to interpreting events, how the mass media constructs frames has an incredibly profound impact; if issues are framed in different ways, their meaning, and thus interpretation, can significantly change. The question that this study poses is: how does the framing of irregular migration in the mass media contribute to the likelihood of a period of major political contestation occurring? This study synthesizes theory from both critical and constructionist framing scholars to understand the research question and subsequent analysis. A qualitative longitudinal content analysis will be undertaken, analyzing a sample of articles taken from United Kingdom mass media news sources (The Guardian, The Times, and The Sun). Articles from three distinct stages will be examined: pre-Brexit referendum (January 1st, 2015, up to March 31st, 2015), the build up to the Brexit referendum (April 1st, 2016, up to June 23rd, 2016), and post-Brexit referendum (from June 24th, 2016, up to September 30th, 2016). Two framing categories are coded for and analyzed: human-interest/humanitarian (HI/H) and threat/conflict (T/C). These frames were chosen due to their high relevancy towards the topic of irregular migration. The study found that T/C framing was used slightly more often overall, also starting out as the most used category in the first time period. The second time period saw a decrease in HI/H framing with an increase in T/C framing. Surprisingly, the third time period saw a substantial increase in the use of HI/H framing and a sharp decrease in T/C framing; this time period also had the greatest number of articles coded as N/A, suggesting that alternative framing techniques were being used. Analysis of the individual framing category indicators additionally reveals how these shifts in framing trends are apparent across ideologically opposed sources to an extent.

Advisor

Kille, Kent

Department

Political Science

Disciplines

International Relations

Keywords

Media Framing, Mass Media, Framing Analysis, Irregular Migration, Brexit

Publication Date

2026

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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© Copyright 2026 Liam Alexander Donovan