Abstract
This edited collection aims to bridge the gap between two fields of academic inquiry – economics and political economy, and journalism and communication studies by focusing on the topic of economic inequality and the media. As the editors Andrea Grisold and Paschal Preston explain, ‘Economic inequalities have become increasingly prominent in public debate in the last decade as sluggish economic growth, declining or stagnant incomes, high unemployment, and state policy regimes orientated towards austerity dominate many core capitalist regions, often with extreme turbulence in the political arena’ (blurb). The book focuses on the news media coverage of Thomas Piketty's best-selling Capital in the Twenty-First Century in four countries – Austria, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom in the 13 months following its publication. The book focuses on the allegedly neglected link between news media selection, framing and discussion of issues related to economic inequality, and ‘how such storytelling relates to the specific aspects of the economic and public policies factors shaping the onward march of economic inequality in the long-run’ (p. 1). The book focuses on three sets of questions: ‘1. How do the news media identify, cover, and discuss economic inequalities? … 2. In what ways do the news media discuss or explain the causes of economic inequality, and how do they define the optimal actions to remedy, reduce, or ameliorate inequality? … 3. What are the wider implications of the key empirical findings and analyses emerging from our study of media coverage in an era of growing economic inequality?’ (pp. 7–8). The book is split into Introduction, eight substantial chapters and a concluding one. Chapter two explores the trends in economic inequality and news mediascape. Chapter three focuses on the mediatization of inequality. Chapter four reviews the literature on media and economic inequality. Chapter five discusses ‘issues related to media power, social semiotics, and the language of news media, including how CDA may be applied to journalism texts and practices’ (p. 19). The next four chapters then present the key findings from the empirical analysis. This is a well-structured, coherent and well-argued edited book.