Critical explorations of media and inequality / edited by Majka Ryan, Martin J. Power, and Eoin Devereux.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Devereux, Eoin, editor.

Power, Martin J., editor.

Ryan, Majka, editor.

Series:

Discourse, Power and Society.

Discourse, Power and Society

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass media--Social aspects.

Mass media.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (249 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

New York, NY : Bloomsbury Publishing (US), 2026.

Place of Publication:

London : Bloomsbury Academic, 2026.

System Details:

text file rdaft

Summary:

"This book reveals how mainstream media both reflect and reinforce structural inequalities by obscuring systemic causes and framing those most affected through individualized, often stigmatizing narratives"-- Provided by publisher.

Media discourses play a powerful role in shaping public understanding of inequality-yet they often obscure, distort, or individualize its causes. Critical Explorations of Media and Inequality examines how mainstream media systems reproduce and legitimize unequal social structures by marginalizing, sensationalizing, or blaming those most affected. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars, this edited collection explores the persistent gaps, tensions, and ideological forces at work in media representations of class, poverty, homelessness, welfare, and immigration across diverse global contexts. Organized around the themes of changing media work practices, authoritative voices, representations, and implications, the chapters interrogate how neoliberalism and shifting journalistic norms continue to shape - and limit - the public conversation on inequality. Through rich empirical analysis and interdisciplinary insight, this volume offers a timely intervention into the politics of media framing and the structural silences that sustain social injustice.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Illustrations

Figures

Tables

Introduction: Through the Looking Glass: Critical Perspectives on Media and Inequality

Chapter 1: Inequality in the Newsroom: Understanding Journalism Work through a Labour Lens

Introduction

Journalism, inequality and the public sphere

Inequality in journalism: The rise of the 'precariat'

Situating the study: The Irish context

Conclusions

Chapter 2: Who Is Entitled to Interesting Work?: Inequality and the Cultural Lives of the British Working Class

Why representation matters

The politics of working-class storytelling

Writing a counter-narrative

8th April

10th April

Discussion

Chapter 3: Representations of Poverty and Inequality in Hindi Cinema

Methodology

The early films

Representation of caste and class discrimination

Representations of poverty and the poor

The 1970s and 1980s

Parallel cinema

Popular cinema of the 1970s and 1980s

The economic reforms and its impact

The exceptions to the rule

Significant regional and international films

Other noteworthy films

Chapter 4: Interrogating Absence/Presence in the Representations of Poverty and the Poor in South African Soap Opera Dramas

Dispossession, urbanization and the manufacture of racialized inequality in colonial South Africa

The cultural politics of media representation in South Africa

Contrasting representations of the poor and poverty in South African soap operas

Generations and the absence/presence of the poor

Uzalo and the hypervisibility of the poor as criminals

Diep City: A more rounded portrayal of the poor?

Conclusions.

Chapter 5: A System of Negative Effects: Insights from Interviews with U.S. News Consumers below the Poverty Line

News media, democracy and class bias

U.S. income inequity and poverty

Poverty and news media

Findings and analysis

Importance of local television news

Distrust of news media and corporate control

Negative emotional toll and avoidance strategies

Weather and security

News uses or being used?

Policy considerations

List of respondents (age, gender, ethnicity, employment status, income level)

Chapter 6: Sensationalism of Suffering: The 'Kerala Model' Media Discourse of Poverty Porn

Western media narratives of poverty porn

Narratives of empathy in Indian media: The politics of sensationalism

The Kerala Model: The construction and the popularization of the victim image

Media sensationalism and poverty porn during Covid-19 in Kerala

Chapter 7: Continuity of Poverty: Religion, Populism and Hegemony

Religious populism and poverty

Media and framing poverty

Methods

A brief history of populism in Turkey

First Phase (1950s) - Adnan Menderes: Conservative and Liberal Discourse

Second Phase (1980s) - Turgut Özal: Conservative and Neoliberal Discourse

Third Phase (after 2002) - Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Neoconservative and Neoliberal Discourse

Chapter 8: Poverty Where?: Reframing Deprivation and Reportage of the Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria

Key dynamics of media representation of inequality

Representations of Africa in the news media

Nigeria and the rise of Boko Haram

Methodological approach

Findings and discussion

Chapter 9: Culinary Skills or Income Inequality?: Mediating Food Poverty in Limerick, Ireland

Introduction.

Contextualizing food poverty in Ireland

Food bank use in Limerick, Ireland

Key findings of media analysis

Media discourses

Chapter 10: 'If It's Travellers, Its News Value Is Less': Media Constructions of Fratricide-Suicide in an Ethnic Minority Community

Murder-suicide and fratricide

Role of the news media in reporting on fratricide-suicides

Tis the poor wot is to blame

Media framing

The O'Driscoll case

Framing analysis - Key findings

A view from the inside: The perspective of media professionals

Chapter 11: Media Representations of Irish Travellers: Implications for Their Day-to-Day Lives

Irish Travellers: An indigenous ethnic group

Racism and discrimination

God's poor and devil's poor

Vilified, stigmatized and exoticized: Media coverage of Travellers

Print media

Irish television news

'Bigger, Fatter, Gypsier'

Experiences of young Travellers in an Irish city

Chapter 12: Framing Syrian Migration in Irish Print Media: A Critical Analysis of Evolving Narratives

Theoretical framework

Results

Evolution of frames over time

Illusion of objectivity: Source selection and bias

Impact of historical allusions and examples

Implications for how the public perceive the issue

Impact on policy

Chapter 13: What Do the Unhoused Tell?: A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Stories Written by Unhoused People

Mainstream media representations of homelessness

Alternative media - a counterforce or not?

Understanding homelessness

Towards social power and dominance, or not?

Findings

Narrating the proximity and the distance

We are not the same: From empathy to the catatonic.

Between lost and newfound hope, personal transformation and call to action

Embracing humour and irony

Discussion and conclusions

Bibliography

Index

About the Contributors.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Critical explorations of media and inequality

ISBN:

979-88-8188-928-9

1-9787-6842-7

979-82-16-25333-4

9781978768420

OCLC:

1564373922