The changing discourses on Islamophobia in the UK press : A modern-diachronic corpus-assisted study

Brookes, Gavin and Curry, Niall (2024) The changing discourses on Islamophobia in the UK press : A modern-diachronic corpus-assisted study. Journal of Corpora and Discourse Studies, 7. pp. 101-124. ISSN 2515-0251

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Abstract

This study presents a modern-diachronic corpus-assisted analysis of the discourses surrounding Islamophobia in the UK broadsheet press across four time points: 2005, 2010, 2013, and 2021. Our analysis is driven by two approaches to keyword analysis (analysing shared keywords across years, versus generating keywords by comparing annual datasets against each other directly). The findings reveal a nuanced evolution in the discursive representation of Islamophobia, marked initially by a focus on violence against Muslims, scepticism about the extent of Islamophobia in the UK, and critiques of alleged over-reporting in 2005. By 2010, the discourse moves towards articulating more critical stances on Islamophobia, particularly in the context of right-wing extremism, and begins to equate Islamophobia with racism, suggesting a broadening societal recognition of it as a serious form of discrimination. Coverage in 2013 focuses on the aftermath of Lee Rigby's murder, highlighting intensified Islamophobia and its impacts on Muslim communities. In 2021, the discourse expands to include institutional Islamophobia, with significant attention paid to political contexts, both in the UK and elsewhere. Throughout the analysis, we identify both evidence of stability and change in the discourses on Islamophobia, with a general movement towards greater recognition and condemnation of Islamophobia, albeit with a persistent tendency for some sections of the broadsheet press to minimize or delegitimize claims about Islamophobia’s prevalence and severity in UK society. We conclude by considering the possible impacts of the identified discursive trends for Muslims experiencing Islamophobia in the UK, and by reflecting on the affordances of the two-pronged approach to keyword analysis used in the study.