Article published in:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 20:4 (2021) ► pp. 585–606

Working Royals, Megxit and Prince Andrew’s disastrous BBC interview

The online media’s representation of the British Monarchy between 2010 and 2020

| Asia University Asia University
This research incorporates Corpus Linguistic techniques with the socio-cognitive approach (SCA) to Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) to analyse the discursive representation of the British Monarchy (BM) through the categorisation of its individual members within the Now Corpus from 2010–2020. Analysis concentrated on their categorisation around key events over the ten-year period, most notably the accusations that Prince Andrew had sexual relations with a minor and Prince Harry’s and Meghan Markle’s decision to relinquish their roles within the Monarchy. Significantly, the Royals were positively represented through the affixation of agency and active form to attach them to positive actions, for instance, performing work and charity related duties. Negativity was deemphasised via the removal of agency, passive use and a refocus onto less serious acts which distanced them, particularly the Queen and Prince Andrew, from scandal.
Keywords: the British Monarchy, corpus linguistics, online media, critical discourse studies, in-group protection, privilege, social hierarchy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
  • 3.Theory
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.Data collection & analysis
    • 5.1Quantitative analysis
    • 5.2Qualitative analysis
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Quantitative analysis
      • 6.1.1Kindness and hard work
      • 6.1.2Kate Middleton
      • 6.1.3Meghan Markle
      • 6.1.4Prince Andrew
    • 6.2Qualitative analysis
      • 6.2.1Active and passive
      • 6.2.2Agency
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 10 November 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20020.chi
References
Abell, Jackie, and Clifford Stevenson
2011 “Defending the faith (s)? Democracy and hereditary right in England”. Political Psychology 32 (1): 485–504. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Augoustinos, Martha, Iain Walker and Ngaire Donaghue
2014 Social cognition: An integrated introduction. Sage.Google Scholar
Baker, Paul, Costas Gabrielatos, Majid Khosravinik, Michal Krzyżanowski, Tony McEnery, and Ruth Wodak
2008 “A useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press”. Discourse & society 19 (3): 273–306. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Berger, Peter L., and Thomas Luckmann
1996 The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Education.Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman
2013 “Critical Discourse Analysis.” In the Routledge handbook of discourse analysis, edited by James P. Gee, and Michael Handford, 9–20. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fullfact
2018 “How does the royal family make money?” Accessed January 6, 2020. https://​fullfact​.org​/economy​/royal​-family​-what​-are​-costs​-and​-benefits/
Gabrielatos, Costas
2007 “Selecting query terms to build a specialised corpus from a restricted- access database.” ICAME journal 311: 5–44.Google Scholar
Hall, Matthew
2011 Political traditions and UK politics. Springer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, David
2007 A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press, USA.Google Scholar
Harvey, Laura, Kim Allen, and Heather Mendick
2015 “Extraordinary acts and ordinary pleasures: Rhetorics of inequality in young people’s talk about celebrity.” Discourse & society 26 (4): 428–444. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hart, Christopher
2010 Critical discourse analysis and cognitive science: New perspectives on immigration discourse. Springer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2011 “Moving beyond metaphor in the cognitive linguistic approach to CDA.” Critical discourse studies in context and cognition 431: 171–192. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Heimbrod, Camille
2019 “Why Prince Andrew’s ‘Unprecedented’ Interview Could ‘Come Back to Haunt Him’.” International Business Times, November 17, 2019. https://​www​.ibtimes​.com​/why​-prince​-andrews​-unprecedented​-interview​-could​-come​-back​-haunt​-him​-2868040
Laclau, Ernesto, and Chantal Mouffe
2014 Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics. Verso Trade.Google Scholar
Littler, Jo
2017 Against Meritocracy: Culture, Power and myths of mobility. Taylor & Francis. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Maclaran, Pauline, Cele Otnes, and Eileen Fischer
2008 “Maintaining the myth of the monarchy: how producers shape consumers’ experiences of the British royal family”. ACR North American Advances.Google Scholar
Moscovici, Serge
1961 La psychanalyse, son image et son public [Psychoanalysis, its image and its public]. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
1984 “The phenomenon of social representations.” Social representations: 3–69.Google Scholar
Palmer, Catherine
2007 “ ‘Just Like Our Family’: Royalty, national Identity and Tourism.” In Royal Tourism: Excursions Around Monarchy, edited by Philip Long and Nicola J. Palmer, 194–213. Clevedon: Channel View Publications Ltd. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Reisigl, Martin and Ruth Wodak
2009 “The discourse historical approach.” Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis: 87–121. London, Sage.Google Scholar
Repo, Jemima, and Riina Yrjölä
2015 “ ‘We’re all princesses now’: Sex, class, and neoliberal governmentality in the rise of middle-class monarchy”. European Journal of Cultural Studies 18 (6): 741–760. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, John
2006 Analysing newspapers: An approach from critical discourse analysis. Palgrave.Google Scholar
Scott, Jennifer
2019 “Election debate: five things from Johnson v Corbyn head to head.” The BBC, November 19, 2019. https://​www​.bbc​.com​/news​/election​-2019​-50481167
Sovereign report
2018–2019 “The Sovereign Grant and Sovereign Grant Reserve.” Accessed May 15, 2020. https://​www​.royal​.uk​/sites​/default​/files​/media​/final​_sovereign​_grant​_for​_website​.pdf
Van Dijk, Teun A.
1997 “Political discourse and racism: Describing others in Western parliaments.” The language and politics of exclusion: Others in discourse 21: 31–64.Google Scholar
2003 “The discourse-knowledge interface.” In Critical discourse analysis, 85–109. Palgrave Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
2009 “Critical discourse studies: A sociocognitive approach.” Methods of critical discourse analysis 2 (1): 62–86.Google Scholar
2013 News as discourse. Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2014 “Discourse, Knowledge and social cognition.” In Discourse and knowledge: A sociocognitive approach: 94–114. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wagner, Wolfgang, and Nicky Hayes
2005 Everyday discourse and common sense: The theory of social representations. Palgrave Macmillan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Widholm, Andreas, and Karin Becker
2015 “Celebrating with the celebrities: television in public space during two royal weddings.” Celebrity Studies 6 (1): 6–22. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
YouGov
2019 “Do you support or oppose these changes (no fault divorce)?” Accessed June 1, 2020. https://​yougov​.co​.uk​/topics​/education​/survey​-results​/daily​/2019​/04​/09​/b66e4​/1
2020 “Do you think that Britain should continue to have a monarchy, or not?” Accessed May 25, 2020. https://​yougov​.co​.uk​/topics​/travel​/survey​-results​/daily​/2020​/02​/18​/8b405​/1
You gov
2020 “Do you support or oppose the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s (Harry & Meghan’s) decision to “step back” from their roles in the Royal Family?” Accessed May 25, 2020. https://​yougov​.co​.uk​/topics​/politics​/survey​-results​/daily​/2020​/01​/09​/f8082​/1
YouGov
2020 “What Great Britain thinks of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.” Accessed May 25, 2020. https://​yougov​.co​.uk​/topics​/politics​/explore​/public​_figure​/Meghan​_Duchess​_of​_Sussex