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Book review: Salomi Boukala, European Identity and the Representation of Islam in the Mainstream Press: Argumentation and Media Discourse

European Identity and the Representation of Islam in the Mainstream Press can be placed in a body of research in discourse studies that has emerged since the outset of the European integration project (Wodak and Boukala, 2015). This research studies European identity – whether it is possible, what challenges it faces and discourses of inclusion and exclusion. European Identity and the Representation of Islam in the Mainstream Press looks, in particular, at the discursive constructions of European identity during a period when there have been waves of migration into Europe, particularly of people from Muslim countries, creating newer waves of what have been characterized as popular nationalist discourses (Wodak, 2015). This body of research can be characterized as having two overlapping domains of focus. One of these is how people narrate grassroots identities through interactions (Zappettini, 2019). The other is about the role of institutions and the discourse of identity they seek to impose on people (Wodak and Fairclough, 1997). Boukala’s contribution fits into the second of these, looking at the representation of European identities as expressed in different national news outlets in Greece, France and Britain. This is clearly seen as highly relevant at present, with another important recent volume by Galpin (2017) covering similar ground. Both of these books explore how different national media represent the legitimacy of the EU project in the face of new challenges. In particular, Boukala asks to what extent the place of Muslim people within the EU, often represented as alien to European culture, ideas and traditions, has provided any kind of rallying point to foster an ‘Us’. Boukala takes up from a trajectory of work on national news media across the EU (Krzyżanowski, 2009; Triandafyllidou et al., 2009). Here, there is a sense that domestic news outlets consistently suppress or challenge the possibility of providing any kind of pan-European interpretations of events. Rather than unity, there has been a pattern of consistent contestation. And what is striking for Boukala is how consistently representations of the EU are strongly characterized by what she calls the ‘blame game’ (p. 6) where the union becomes the cause of all kinds of ills. 1052722 MWC0010.1177/17506352211052722Media, War & ConflictBook review research-article2021