-51.9% of the electorate voted to leave the EU whilst 48.

1%
voted to remain
-for my critical investigation I will be looking into the effects
that the tabloid newspapers had on this result
(11.4)

-First of all its important to realise that UK newspapers are owned

by different media institutions both foreign and domestic owned
-Each of them with their own political opinion and audience type
-To understand this we must look at where some of them lie on
the political spectrum
(13-15)

-Centre to Right wing papers include the sun, the mail, the star
and the telegraph
-These papers are affiliated with the conservative, ukip and
some far right wing papers
-they are considered more unintellectual and one or two are
owned by Rupert Murdoc ill get into institution later
(15)

-Some centre to left wing papers include the guardian, the

independent, the observer and the I
-These papers tend to support the lib dems or the labour party
-They are the opposite of the right wing papers as they are
more intellectual but also have a younger audience

-As you can see 60% of over 65s voted to leave and the average
age for one of the right wing papers is 61
-This is showing some sort of correlation between the tabloids and
the eu referendum
-But how exactly they influenced this will be discussed in a second

-The sun has had its fair share of memorable front pages and
this was one of them
-The play on words BeLeave in Britain along with the union jack
strategically placed would be enough to convince its audience to
vote leave
-Although its important to remember not as many people read the
paper though many news channels broadcast it

- Although some papers resort to lies, in order to attract

readers and centre to right wing papers like the
express have an audience that genuinely believes
this
- Although not from a tabloid newspaper the leave
campaigns bus also gave people the wrong idea and
caused many people to vote leave who were
otherwise undecided

- This centre to left wing paper has the right message but with
a much lower audience than the Sun its articles tend to go
unnoticed and dont gather as much media attention
- Noticeably in the media the more controversial a topic is the
more attention it gets
- But audiences for newspapers like this one focus more on the
facts

- Shortly before the referendum date, US president Barack

Obama commented on the situation and advised the British
people to remain part of the EU
- This was all of the ammunition the leave campaign tabloids
needed to go against the remain ones and convince people to
vote leave
- The right wing leaning papers used this and other tactics to
evoke some patriotism in its readers which arguably couldve
swayed the vote

-The tabloids also had some sort of a narrative in place to

influence the public
-For instance centre to right wing papers portrayed nigel
farage and boris Johnson as heroes that will save Britain by
getting us of the EU
-but also remembering to portray Cameron and others as
villains for siding with the EU
-The centre to left wing papers also used this tactic

-Institutions are significant in determining which side the

newspaper supports
-For example Rupert Murdoch owner of newscorp which also
owns the sun and the mail
- These papers arguably support his own views of right wing
politics and on Brexithe also has a large audience shared
between his different institutions

Alexander Yevgenievich Lebedev A Russian business

man, owner of the independent
-The centre to left wing paper reflects his own views and he
also owns a similar and vocal paper in Russia
-Although some papers like the Independent do not support a
particular political party making them a little bit more less
biased but still taking a side on political issue.

-The murder of MP Joe Cox was exploited by the tabloids on

both sides of the argument
-The remain campaign subtly used this to sway voters
towards them but was an extremely disrespectful move
- And the papers supporting the leave campaign used this
against them which was equally disrespectful

-Newspaper readership has been falling in recent years but

almost all tabloids have adapted to this by creating websites
-Although younger people tend to use twitter or other social
media for news
-This is because social media can cover more than one point
under the uses and gratifications theory
-surveillance and entertainment

- The grey vote (pensioners) is always significant in any

political vote and especially In this referendum as this
would be the second time older people would have the
option to vote on remaining part of the EU
- The 1975 EC referendum would have had a larger tabloid
influence as people relied on this for their information as
social medias like twitter didnt exist
- This time around the tabloids didnt have as much
influence on young people but for the pensioners it was
still significant

- All of the papers used colour, font and images to their

advantage when creating their headlines
- For instance the colours of the union jack are used
frequently
- Also photos of the monarchy were used by papers on both
sides of the political spectrum and the mail (below)
tactically placed their one next to a bold headline
supporting Brexit

-This table shows the most influential papers during the 2015
election
- You could imagine polls being similar to this for the EU
referendum with the centre to right wing papers having the
most influence
- Although it is important to realise that 62% of people said tv
coverage was the most influential during the General
election and stats could be similar for the EU referendum

- The sun has a history of backing the winning side in

many political votes
-When asked what sway the paper had over the
upcoming referendum, the Sun's associate editor Trevor
Kavanagh told the BBC Mr Murdoch's view was "correct".
He added: "We can only say what we believe. A lot of
readers do believe what we say.

Future political votes

-Print Is already dying and in a few years from whatll be
the most influential media platform?
-Will tv news be on top or will social media replace that?
-For now its difficult to say how significant the tabloids were
in influencing the outcome of the EU referendum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0ktojE6WQA