Identity, Inequality, and the Media in Brexit-COVID-19-Britain

Covid-19 and Brexit are extraordinary social and political processes that are occurring simultaneously. These events are exposing the major inequalities that underpin British society across class, ethnic, racial, national, migrant, generational and geographical identities. They are also both high profile public events and processes that generate media and government attention. Building on the team’s existing project on Brexit, the research sets out to examine the resonances and contrasts in the ways in which the inequalities of covid-19 and Brexit have been framed by the media, and people’s everyday experiences. Understanding these inequalities and their potential effects on social and political polarisation is crucial to answering how and in what shape British society and democracy will emerge from both Brexit and covid-19.