To Brexit or not to Brexit? Media Re-contextualization of the Brexit Process in Spain. A Case Study.

Abstract

This paper sheds light on how the Brexit process is presented in the Spanish media three years after the 2016 referendum took place. By drawing on two different types of TV information programmes and comparing the discursive features that characterise documentaries and infotainment, the analysis will identify which framing devices are used in two programmes about Brexit broadcast in Informe Semanal and in La Sexta Columna in April 2019. Framing devices are understood in this paper as mechanisms used to construct particular views of a given reality. Hence, the paper reflects on how different discursive choices may result in different construals, which eventually result in different representations of the Brexit process in Spain. Results show that these construals are not only influenced by how these programmes aim to represent Brexit, but that these are also motivated by the programmes leaning more on information or on infotainment.