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Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Vol. 5:1 (2017) ► pp.108–133

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A study of discourses and cyber activism of the far-right British nationalist party Britain First

| St. John’s University, Taiwan
| Lancaster University, U.K.

This paper combines corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis methodologies in order to investigate the discourses and cyber activism of the British right-wing nationalist party, Britain First. A study of a corpus of texts produced by elite members of the group reveals a racist, xenophobic stance which constructs Islam and Muslims as the radical, dangerous ‘Other’. This creates a discourse of fear that threatens the way of life of the indigenous in-group of the British people. An investigation of the cyber activity of the group demonstrates that Britain First is able to achieve a significant amount of following on social media by publishing populist material that veils their true nature or ideological stance.

Keywords: Britain First, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, Islamophobia, cyber activism
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Findings: Corpus data
    • 4.2Findings: Social media activism
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 16 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.5.1.05bri
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