The Discourse Presentation of the Lone-Wolf Terrorist in the British Press, 2000-2019: A corpus-based study

Abstract

This thesis investigates representations of the lone-wolf terrorist (LWT) in the British press. The concept of the LWT is beset by definitional, ideological, and terminological complexities. The media, especially the press, plays a role in shaping how these complexities are reflected and constructed. Yet, despite the growing prominence of the LWT phenomenon in public discourse, academic research on how the media represent this actor remains limited, with a specific gap in studies employing systematic analyses.

This study poses the following overarching research questions:
1. How is the lone-wolf terrorist represented in the British press?
2. How do these representations feed into surrounding discourses?
3. How do these representations and surrounding discourses evolve over time?

By adopting approaches from critical lexicography and corpus-assisted discourse studies, this study seeks to establish emerging definitions of the LWT, explore whether identity stereotypes are reinforced or challenged, and investigate the characteristic aloneness of the LWT. In doing so, it applies the interrelated phases of collocation, semantic preference, and discourse prosody analyses.

The data for the analysis is the Lone Wolf Corpus (LWC), a topic-specific, purpose-built corpus covering 2000–2019. Its compilation approach involves a methodological contribution, specifically in relation to query formulation and the effective handling of polysemous query terms (i.e., words with multiple meanings).

Key findings reveal that the LWT is most often represented in the LWC as a young, male Muslim motivated by militant Islamism. The study identifies shifts in emerging definitions of the LWT, illustrating the flexibility of the figure as both an autonomous actor and a product of broader extremist networks and/or community complicity. This duality indicates how emerging definitions of the LWT shape, and are shaped by, attitudes towards who or what constitutes terrorist threats, as well as perspectives on related issues such as extremism and radicalisation.

Date of Award	21 May 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Edge Hill University
Supervisor	Costas Gabrielatos (Director of Studies)