Keele Research Repository

This article examines representations of religion on an ordinary day in British newspapers, 17 September in 2013, 2014 and 2015, as part of an international comparative study. Taking as its sample The Times, the Metro and a local newspaper, the Manchester Evening News, the study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine global, national and regional stories about conventional and common religion and the secular sacred. In a transitional period, in the run up to the EU referendum (2016) and before populism became more visible in the mainstream, the findings demonstrate the importance of identity politics in the representation of religion and diversity in UK news. Within a backdrop of embedded Christianity and through an excessive focus on Islam, debates about religion often explore or seek to reinforce ideas of Britishness, whether that be aligned to a traditional Christian heritage, secular liberalism or, an ‘acceptable’ version of integrated diversity.