Media Representation of Anti-Asian/Chinese Hate Crimes during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic in the UK Press
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- This dissertation examines the media representation of anti-Asian/Chinese hate crimes in the UK press during and after the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2024). Drawing on theories of media representation, othering, and news racism, it answers two research questions: firstly, how are minority victims, offenders, and the COVID-19 pandemic portrayed in UK newspaper headlines, and secondly, who is given a voice in the articles and how does this shape representations of the parties involved. A corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis (CACDA) was conducted on 84 articles from 39 distinct UK news sources. The analysis reveals that victims are consistently foregrounded but stripped of agency and individuality, while offenders and their racist intent are largely obscured, with responsibility for the crimes displaced onto the pandemic context. Across the corpus, official and institutional voices consistently dominate the reported speech, while the voices of minority victims are relatively underrepresented. A comparative analysis is employed to explore differences in representation between broadsheets and tabloids, which reveals notable divergences in length, narrative and register. Overall, the dissertation shows that UK press coverage tends to present anti-Asian/Chinese hate incidents as isolated events rather than situating them within structures of systemic racism.