The Representation of Vegans and Veganism in the British Press : A Corpus Linguistics Analysis

Abstract: Through the use of corpus linguistics, this paper examines the representation of veganism in four of the British newspapers with higher circulation. The method used is Corpus linguistics analysis, which is a useful tool to isolate sentences in which specific words are mentioned and therefore facilitates further analysis and comparison of these. The specific aim of the paper is comparing the use of vegan' between 2010 and 2015 in the aforementioned newspapers and spot any differences and similarities, as well as analysing whether the political stance of each newspaper also affects their views on the subject. The analysis uncovered an increase in popularity of veganism between both years, as well as a reduction of negative connotation when referring to the words under scrutiny. Veganism was also treated more neutrally. The most common way of representing veganism in a negative way was by mockery. Finally, more conservative newspapers were shown to represent veganism more negatively than the more liberal ones.