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Income inequality and the absence of a Tawney moment in the mass media

Author

Listed:
  • McGovern, Patrick
  • Obradović, Sandra
  • Bauer, Martin W.
Abstract
In this paper we address the paradox of increasing income inequality and the absence of public mobilization around the issue. As the mass media are our most important source of information on wider economic affairs, we examine the salience and framing of income inequality within major UK and US newspapers over the period 1990 – 2015. Despite an initial surge in media attention and again towards the end of the period, the issues-attention cycle of inequality resembles a hype-cycle that is more common with arcane academic or techno-scientific topics than with social mobilisation. The dominant frames present income inequality as the seemingly inevitable result of globalization, market forces and technological change. No new radical frames of economic injustice have emerged, neither have any new actors, and so policy solutions fall back onto existing left-right approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • McGovern, Patrick & Obradović, Sandra & Bauer, Martin W., 2020. "Income inequality and the absence of a Tawney moment in the mass media," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107535, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:107535
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/107535/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Timothy M. Smeeding, 2005. "Public Policy, Economic Inequality, and Poverty: The United States in Comparative Perspective," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(s1), pages 955-983, December.
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    3. van Lente, Harro & Spitters, Charlotte & Peine, Alexander, 2013. "Comparing technological hype cycles: Towards a theory," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(8), pages 1615-1628.
    4. Carina Engelhardt & Andreas Wagener, 2016. "What do Germans think and know about income inequality? A survey experiment," Working Papers 389, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    5. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    income distribution; inequality; media; discourse; United Kingdom; USA;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

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