Mentally ill' or 'terrorist': a discourse and ethnographic approach to the framing of the murderer of politician Jo Cox in British tabloid and broadsheet newspapers

Media discourse and attitudes are commonly examined as two parallel apparatuses of constructing meaning. This research explores the relationship between discourse and attitudes based on the murder of British politician Jo Cox in June 2016 . This analysis focuses on two distinct depictions of the murderer, Thomas Mair; ‘mentally ill’ and ‘terrorist’ in British newspapers. Previous literature investigates media discourse on mental illness and terrorism as two distinct areas, but does not discuss the conflation of mental illness and terrorism. The present study aims to identify and explain why recent discourse tends to present mental illness as not separate from terrorism. Firstly, a discourse analysis approach examines the framing of Mair from the time of the incident to the trial, using the media corpus Lexis Nexis to compare tabloid and broadsheet discourse. Secondly, an ethnographic approach investigates the professional usage of these frames through semi- structured interviews with journalists and police officers . In order to understand the differing usages of these frames and their relating contexts, the participants were asked about the circumstances in which the terms ‘mentally ill’ and ‘terrorist’ appear within their field, and if there were any regulations surrounding their usage. Results showed how tabloids tended to frame Mair as mentally ill from incident to trial, whilst broadsheets were more likely to frame Mair as a terrorist. Furthermore, the research identified a key connection between the language of media discourse and professional understanding of these terms in line with recent shifts in governmental policy on both mental illness and terrorism. This paper provides a valuable insight into topical case study, whilst suggesting improvements that institutions can make to redefine and reframe public understanding of mental illness and terrorism.