Uneven Development in the News: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Media Representations of the North of England

Sammanfattning

The difference between the English North and South has long been a defining feature within the political and economical debate of the United Kingdom. Research has traditionally been done either explaining the regional inequalities of the region or the examination of the difference in material indicators such as income and employment. This thesis explores the role of the media and how the media discourse has constructed the public view of the North-South divide. We will use Critical Discourse Analysis developed by Norman Fairclough and the three-dimensional model to analyze 15 newspapers published by three major UK based news outlets, published in the years 2020-2025. The analysis is based on revealing what discursive practices and recurring narratives are used to frame northern England in national media. This study reveals how the North of England is consistently and reportedly constructed as disadvantaged to the South, especially in terms of economic and social prospects. Across all three outlets, The Guardian, The BBC and the Daily Mail, several accruing discourses are used, where the North is constructed through regional inequality, deprivation, and policy failure. Despite this, the three outlets articulation of the North differs depending on their ideological leaning; they do all contribute to the comparative framing of the North as a space of deficiency and disadvantage. The study concludes that media discourse has played a significant role in shaping the perceptions of the North-South divide. This thesis contributes to the scientific debate by highlighting the discursive construction of the North.