Media Manipulation: Divisions of Groups in BrexLit Middle England

Abstract

In the widely acclaimed BrexLit Middle England (2018), Jonathan Coe foregrounds the role of media in both unifying and dividing a nation on the brink of political rupture. While many existing studies of BrexLit have focused on race, class, and generational divides, this paper highlights media as a critical but under-examined force in shaping political subjectivities and group dynamics among British people. Through a close analysis of three social groups in the novel, represented respectively by Sophie Potter, Ian Coleman, and Colin Trotter, the paper presents how divergent media preferences position them within distinct media ecologies by shaping their cognitive framework and affective dispositions. It also shows how such differences were further exploited by the campaign media during the referendum, which deepened group divisions and intensified ideological contestations. Therefore, Middle England reveals how contemporary media landscapes contribute to the divisions of social groups, inviting BrexLit criticism to move beyond cataloguing divisions toward analyzing the mediatized processes by the media that make the Brexit divisions become inevitable.