Keywords in the Press: The New Labour Years

An enormously interesting work, both as a corpus-driven discourse-analytical study that demonstrates the complexities of studying lexis and as a snapshot of a defining period in British politics. * The Year's Work in English Studies *
Offers a very insightful study of the language of politicians and commentators during the Blair years ... The style is accessible and the presentation of results and discussion is complemented with many examples and contextual references to the socio-political situation of Britain during those years, which greatly facilitate the reading of the book. Keywords in the Press is a thorough and comprehensive piece of research which will undoubtedly be of interest to critical stylistics and critical discourse analysis scholars. * Language and Literature *
Jeffries and Walker's Keywords in the Press successfully merges the fields of critical stylistics and corpus linguistics. * Journal of Language and Politics *
Keywords in the Press examines a crucial time in British political history through the lens of the keywords used in that era. It demonstrates how a focus on language can inform political critique, by questioning and unravelling what other commentators overlook. The authors have performed an important service by making the research process itself crystal clear and so available for other researchers to apply. * Susan Hunston, Professor of English Language, University of Birmingham, UK *
This book is an example par excellence of what critical applications of linguistics can and should do for social science research. Perfectly mixing quantitative and qualitative methods, the book combines keyword analysis with critical stylistics, an approach developed by the authors, to illuminate the core values characterising New Labour. Clear, engaging and rigorous, the book offers a valuable, language-based framework for investigating political ideologies. As such, it will appeal to those working in critical language studies but equally students and researchers in political science with a concern for the linguistic reflexes of politics in action. * Christopher Hart, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Lancaster University, UK *
Keywords in the Press is a significant spin-free contribution to studies of neo-liberal influenced political buzzwords. This analysis of semantically empty but ominously dominant keywords such as ‘choice’, ‘terror’ and ‘reform’ updates Raymond Williams classic study. Supported by an impressive 30 million word news corpus and combined with a critical stylistic framework this is a welcome and overdue empirical study of the enduring legacy of Blair’s New Labour discourse. * Matt Davies, Senior Lecturer in English Language and Programme Leader, University of Chester, UK *