Media Coverage of Economic Inequality

Chapter 6 at first introduces the design of the empirical study (research agenda, approach, and methods adopted) of newspaper coverage of economic inequality in four countries. It describes the key selections and methods which defined the corpus of empirical materials at the heart of the authors’ original primary research. It then provides a summary overview of key aspects of our empirical research findings. Next, there is a summary discussion of the overall findings from the authors’ corpus of news media materials and data collection strategies. The chapter proceeds to examine the particular arguments in Piketty’s book which are either highlighted or neglected by the coverage in the newspaper articles forming the corpus of primary materials. It then moves on to present overall assessments of the coverage of Piketty’s book by the selected news media in the four countries. The authors identify and discuss how individual newspapers in the sample tend to agree or disagree with the key themes and argument in Piketty’s book. Responses engaging with the methods and data informing Piketty’s research and publications are also considered. Next, the chapter considers the newspapers’ engagement with discourses on economic inequality and the authors’ stances on whether or not economic inequality is problematic for the economy and society. An initial summary overview of trends in the discussion of Piketty’s policy proposals is presented, and the chapter concludes with the importance of sourcing. The following tables/graphs and figures—unless otherwise declared—are derived out of our empirical project and refer to original data generated throughout the project.

Media and Economic Inequality

Chapter 4 reviews a focused selection of the existing research which sheds light on the role that the media play in relation to the circulation of certain sets of ideas and discourses concerning inequality issues and redistribution policies (i.e., the shaping of inequality preferences and beliefs). The main aim in this chapter is to analyse prior empirical studies which explore how this is shaped and informed by media coverage and engagement. To do so, the authors first outline the findings of survey data analyses on individuals’ perception of inequality, and their related position towards the necessity of redistribution. After that, the chapter provides a systematic overview of contemporary empirical studies which examine the media coverage of economic inequality and redistribution policies, and thus debate the role mass media play as information providers. We assess the underlying assumptions and the methodological approaches guiding the respective empirical findings, highlight the merits of this body of work and identify open questions for further research. The last part of this chapter provides a discussion of (currently rather neglected) political economy theories that offer rich theoretical approaches to study media, power, and inequality, thus an enhanced theoretically informed understanding beyond the mere empiricism.

Is This Feasible?

This chapter presents an analysis of the corpus of newspaper articles focused on how news media engage with themes and issues related to redistribution policies. One frequently posed question in this context concerns the feasibility and effectiveness of enhanced redistribution policies. Another set of questions concern the scope, role, and optimal approach to novel forms of global wealth tax, the redistribution policy most commonly referred to in the corpus of news media discourses. In the effort to unveil the interrelatedness of dominance, power, and control of readership opinion so often manifest in the news media texts, it becomes clear that the use of language is crucial in discourses related to policy options. Thus, this chapter draws on primary research materials to provide distinctive insights on the approach and discourses of the news media in shaping the readers’ knowledge, opinion, or beliefs with respect to the wider potential, role, and scope of redistribution policies. Chapter 9 provides an in-depth analysis of the ways redistribution policies are portrayed within the overall Piketty debate. After a short quantitative section examining what types of redistribution policies are mentioned or discussed, the chapter provides a detailed analysis of the legitimation strategies expressing a negative or a positive stance towards redistribution policies. Finally, the chapter discusses two common themes in the overall corpus: that articles ascribe a highly ambivalent role to the state, and a positive role to the entrepreneur as innovator.

Stagnation, Social Tensions, Unfairness

Chapter 8 provides an analysis of the subset of news media discourses which argued that inequality is a problem, clearly an important category for the examination of the overall media debate on Piketty’s book. Those discourses centre around considerations of fairness, frequently focusing on political and economic consequences. All relevant articles treating inequality is a problem are subject to focused analysis, whilst a detailed analysis is undertaken in the case of a subset of highly relevant texts. The authors also observe and address various significant silences in the corpus of newspaper articles, a concept derived from prior critical cultural, linguistic, and discourse studies. This refers to important themes or issues which are ignored in the newspaper texts but which would be reasonably considered decisive factors when discussing growing inequality. Table 8.1 provides an overview of the main results of coding and analysis of the discourses in all those newspaper articles in the corpus which provide, define and treat inequality as a problem. As they comprise a significant share of coded segments, the authors then concentrate on the most frequent and relevant news texts for a more elaborate analysis. The chapter proceeds to examine both the obvious and the subtle ways in which these newspaper article set about constructing economic inequality as a problem. The final sections further consider and discuss the key findings in relation to theoretical considerations.

Social Semiotics and Journalistic Discourses on Economics and Inequality

This chapter continues the review of research and discussion of key features of economic news and how economic ideas and practices are shaped by the media. The focus falls on communication channels and the various ways in which language is used to construct certain perceptions of society and the economy. In particular, it introduces social semiotics and critical discourse analysis as theories in the field of communication studies and linguistics. In tandem, these provide rich concepts and analytical tools to explore the communicative and meaning-making patterns that journalists, editors, and news agencies use when describing particular social or economic concepts. This chapter also addresses related issues such as journalistic blind spots and silences in public discourse. It provides an overview of social semiotic theory, followed by a discussion on some of the relevant key concepts. It then moves on to discuss discourse analysis and journalism, focusing on the text. Next the attention turns to journalistic texts, discourses and ideologies and the role they play in wider society. Here, we will contend that journalism cannot be seen as simply an objective and dispassionate observer but rather a part of the wider system of semiosis, that is the dialectical relationship between discourse and society often represented by ‘common sense’ ideas on how the world works, ideas that may go on to influence both macro and micro decision-making in the economic and wider world. Finally, the authors address the role of journalism in economic processes alongside journalistic representation of economics and economic processes.

News Media and Economic Inequality

Chapter 10 provides an overview and a summary reflection on the key findings from the authors’ distinctive, cross-country study of news media coverage of economic inequality, viewed through the lens of journalistic responses to Piketty’s high-profile book on this theme. It examines key findings arising from cross-country empirical research, linking them to broader discourses on economic, material, and discursive aspects of power, public policies, and political economy, as well as cultural research on news media. This chapter also briefly considers the contours of requisite reforms if the present dominance of elite discourses are to be ameliorated when it comes to inequality and other economic issues of wider public interest.

Meritocracy, Markets, Social Mobility

Chapter 7 examines the subset of the corpus of newspaper articles which reacted negatively with respect to key features of Piketty’s analysis and findings. The chapter focuses on those articles which advanced defensive discourses on inequality, seeking to either downplay, deny, or conflate the key findings related to the secular trend of growing inequality. The approach and treatment in this chapter proposes that such discourses can be found in a number of categories: firstly, where the challenges focus on the method used in Piketty’s research and/or the data; secondly, where inequality is defined and treated not as a problem but rather a necessity (i.e., for innovation); and finally, discourses that oppose regulation or other intervention (such as redistribution policies) with the argument or assumption that any regulation would make matters worse.

Inequality, Mediatization, and Critical Takes on Making the News

Chapter 3 continues the initial review of existing research literature related to the changing role and forms of the media and economic affairs, and the issues of economic inequality in particular. It aims to identify some high-level ideas and concepts drawn from the fields of socioeconomics and political economy, as well as certain sub-sets of the communication and journalism studies fields, which shed light on the meaning of economic inequality and the key influences on the selection or making of news culture and journalistic practices. The chapter considers the shifting forms and meanings of economic equality in the modern social sciences, indicating the diversity of prior studies, engagement with, or neglect of inequality matters. It then moves on to address the notion of mediatization and select aspects of the evolving role and scope of the media in relation to economic and other societal processes, including those related to economic inequality. Next, some of the major approaches and prevailing perspectives on ‘making the news’ are identified. This outlines a typology of the prior research literature, noting a number of distinct schools in explaining the key influences on newsmaking and shaping journalism discourses. The authors focus on certain macro- and meso-level factors which influence news media and journalistic discourse (rather than individual-level characteristics or failings of journalists). The chapter ends with an outline of the authors’ transdisciplinary approach towards ‘making the news’, combining conceptual elements from both the critical cultural studies and political economy approaches. A final section considers conclusions and implications.

Trends in Economic Inequality and News Mediascape

Chapter 2 engages with two major background themes: a review of inequality trends and how these are addressed by researchers in the economics field, and, secondly, the contours of change in the news media landscape. The first section reviews a key set of recent contributions in the field of economics on economic inequality. The next section turns to an overview of wealth and income inequality in the four countries that are at the centre of the empirical part of this volume (UK, Germany, Austria, and Ireland). The next two sections are concerned with academic responses to Piketty’s (2014) book and the subsequent academic debate on shifts in policies and institutional settings which can contribute to the reduction of inequality. The latter part of the chapter turn to the analysis of communicative resources, in particular changes in the news media sectors. It examines forms of inequality in ownership structures and concentration trends unfolding within the daily newspaper markets. Chapter 2 also wraps up with some concluding comments.

Introduction

Economic inequalities have become increasingly prominent in recent public debates, not least in the context of the latest Great Recession that followed from the financial crash in 2007, and attendant austerity regimes in many countries. In the fields of political economy and media and journalism studies, the authors observe important and parallel blind spots which serve to further underline the distinctive value and potential of the present book: questions concerning economic processes in general, and the highly sensitive subtheme of economic inequalities have been relatively neglected in academic fields specializing in news media and journalism studies. The major schools of theory and analysis in mainstream economics have also paid relatively little explicit attention to the evolving scope, role, or implications of mediated communication in the conduct and performance of economic processes in general, as well as in the highly sensitive subarena of economic inequalities. This chapter introduces the key concerns and issues addressed in this book, as well as the distinctive, transdisciplinary approach and the original empirical research studies that inform this book. It identifies key blind spots in the existing research and explains the ambition of this distinctive study to shed new light on the features of news media coverage of economic inequality, as well as on related debates on taxation and other policies impacting the distribution of wealth and income.