How Users of British Media Websites Make a Bogeyman of George Soros

Abstract In this article we present the results of a qualitative content analysis of online reader comments in British traditional mainstream media. Our aim was to determine the extent to which users respond with antisemitic attributions in the comments under newspaper articles that discuss George Soros. To this end, we selected three events in the year 2020 where reporting on Soros in The Guardian, The Independent, and the Daily Mail triggered discussion. For these events, we examined comments sections on the news websites and the media’s Facebook profiles for antisemitic attributions. With the linguistic form of the attributions as our focus, we used a pragmalinguistic toolbox to analyse implicit, contextual language use. The comments included classic stereotypes, conspiracy theories, victimperpetrator reversal and death wishes. The results reveal the relevance of using an investigative design capable of capturing implicit language use in the analysis of hate speech.