Abstract
Here we consider a second case study, that of the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU. Referenda are a rare creature within British politics, though their use seems to be on the rise at a national and regional level. Ostensibly they represent increased engagement as some form of direct democratic participation. However, a review of how the remain and leave campaigns articulated their political communication in mainstream press and broadcast media, suggests that the construction of democratic participation was very similar to that found during the 2015 General Election. We therefore suggest that spectacle has become a central, if not the central, characteristic of the articulation of democratic participation in the press and broadcast media.
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Lamond, I.R., Reid, C. (2017). The 2016 EU Referendum. In: The 2015 UK General Election and the 2016 EU Referendum. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54780-0_4
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