The 2008 Financial Crisis, the Great Recession and Austerity in Britain: Analysing Media Coverage Using the Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model

Abstract

This chapter investigates the functional utility of the PM in Britain where, as in the US, corporate media ownership prevails. More specifically, it uses the PM to understand and explain British newspaper and television coverage of the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession and austerity that followed. Divided into three sections, the chapter begins with an overview of the PM, its three hypotheses, five operative filters and methodological approach. The second section concentrates on the case study: mass media coverage of the 2008 financial crisis, the Great Recession and austerity. It also considers how the mass media treated the idea of levying a wealth tax as a radical alternative to austerity. The third section applies the PM to such media coverage and suggests the Model is, indeed, relevant and applicable in Britain.