Europhobia as a trajectory to hate speech normalisation? A diachronic analysis of Brexit media propaganda

This article provides a diachronic analysis of how Europhobic discourses (with particular reference to Brexit) have emerged, consolidated and normalised in the British public sphere (media, institutions and the networked public). Identifying a discursive chain of legitimacy articulated in three interrelated phases (pre-legitimation, institutionalisation and normalisation) this article suggests that the legacy of Brexit can be found in a normalisation of exclusionary discourses which could have also become the rational basis for legitimising further discrimination in a self-reinforcing logic. By taking a diachronic approach, this article makes the case for analysing discriminatory discourses from ‘chained’ and diachronic perspectives to capture social dynamics beyond the normative aspect.