University of Isfahan Applied Research on English Language 3134-0644 15 3 2026 07 01 Constructing Political Reality: Corpus-Based Evidence of Framing and Ideological Language in Brexit Media Discourse 1 36 30667 10.22108/are.2026.149533.2775 EN Mehrdad Vasheghani Farahani Lancaster University, UK Mahmoud Elshahat Abdelghaffar Omar Leipzig University, Germany Journal Article 2026 06 29 Brexit prompted an extraordinary volume of media coverage, characterized by ideological conflict and competing political narratives. Using a 125-million-word corpus of Brexit-related texts, this study applies a corpus-based critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to examine how language actively constructs political meaning rather than simply reporting events. The findings identify four dominant discursive frames: (1) campaign-related discourse, (2) representations of political actors and institutions, (3) evaluative and ideological language, and (4) future-oriented projections. Together, these frames shape a highly polarized interpretive landscape in which Brexit emerges not merely as a political process but as a contested ideological symbol. The analysis demonstrates how framing strategies and evaluative lexical choices work collectively to produce political meaning within contemporary hybrid media environments. By highlighting the role of language in shaping public perceptions and political identities, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of how ideological discourse and evaluative stance foster polarization in modern media ecologies. The findings also emphasize the importance of critical media literacy and illustrate the value of corpus-assisted discourse analysis for investigating political conflict and public debate in networked societies. https://are.ui.ac.ir/article_30667_9a7ec49a1048e2351de61e7f35d83f51.pdf