It’s the Economy, Stupid: Coverage of the British EU Referendum in Norway

Abstract

This chapter analyses the coverage in three Norwegian daily newspapers and the online service of the Norwegian public service broadcasting company NRK during the 20 days before and 10 days after the British EU referendum in 2016. The study finds that there were four competing frames in the coverage, two about the outcome of a possible leave vote (negative effects and not particularly negative effects) and two about the reasons for a leave vote: a reaction to social and economic inequality or a reaction to immigration. The negative effects frame was the most salient frame, and it also turned out that a fair share of both effects frames was about economic issues, including long-term and more short-term reactions of the financial markets. Economic issues were however not given the same attention when it came to the situation of the unemployed or ‘working poor’, as the immigration question to an extent overshadowed other messages from ‘ordinary’ interviewees.