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.