Mary O’Gorman, BA English Language & Language

The Hillsborough Disaster: A Comparative analysis of language use in UK newspapers using a corpus

On 15 April 1989 an FA Cup semi-final match took place between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. It escalated into a scene of chaos and mayhem as 96 Liverpool fans were fatally crushed. 27 years later in 2016, the police were convicted of manslaughter, where six individuals were imprisoned for the death of the 96. Up until recently, this incident has been a major topic of discussion across the media. I wish to compare the language of UK newspapers between 1989-94 and 2012-16 using a corpus-based approach. I will focus on how the labelling of football fans as ‘hooligans’ allowed for the deflection of blame and denial to the ‘truth’.