[Commlist] New book - The Media, the Public and The Great Financial Crisis

New Book Announcement


*The Media, The Public and The Great Financial Crisis *

*Mike Berry* *(Cardiff University)*




https://www.springer.com/gb/book/9781137499721#aboutBook


This book explores the impact of the print and broadcast media on public 
knowledge and understanding of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis. It 
represents the first systemic attempt to analyse how mass media 
influenced public opinion and political events during this key period in 
Britain's economic history. To do this the book combines analysis of 
media content, focus groups with members of the public and interviews 
with leading news journalists and editors in order to unpack the 
production, content and reception of news.


The early part of the book examines how the banking crisis was reported 
by Britain's media and the impact of this coverage on public attitudes 
towards the crisis. Later chapters analyse how the debate over Britain's 
public deficit was discussed by the print and broadcast media as well 
how both short and long terms patterns of media socialisation were 
crucial in legitimating the UK's turn to austerity.

*Praise for the book*

*
*

This is an enormously impressive book. It examines media reporting of 
the financial crisis with great insight, using both quantitative and 
qualitative methods, covering both press and broadcasting. It offers a 
persuasive explanation of why the media reporting was so inadequate, and 
a reception study indicating that this flawed reporting influenced 
public perceptions. This book is important because it dissects how the 
neo-liberal hegemony was maintained with the help of a tamed media in 
the face of a devastating economic crisis whose impact is still being 
felt a decade later. It will be of widespread interest to academics, 
students and concerned citizens across the western world.- 
*Professor**James Curran*, Goldsmiths College


The reverberations of the extraordinary financial crises that hit the 
UK, and the western world generally, in 2008 are still being 
experienced, and explained.  A decade later, we remain bewildered by the 
complexity of the shockwaves these events produced, whether in the form 
of austerity policies, or in the rise of the political far right. 
Berry’s important study of these unprecedented episodes looks at the 
production, content, and reception of economic news about them and at 
economic journalism more generally.  It is indispensable for any full 
understanding of the recent and current history of British capitalism’. 
– *Professor Peter Golding*, Northumbria University, UK


If you want to know why we need to reform our media read this book. 
Through detailed empirical research of news production, news content and 
audience reception Berry reveals how the media were key to the public 
understanding of and attitudes towards the financial crisis. He reveals 
how a policy of austerity became acceptable and ultimately how the banks 
got away with it. A brilliant exposition of the weaknesses of economic 
journalism and how much we rely on it. Media power is interrogated and 
found to be alive and kicking.  How can the same practices be prevented 
in the future? Read this book and find out. *Professor Natalie Fenton*, 
Goldsmiths College.


While everyone has their anecdote, Mike Berry does the systematic data 
collection and analysis that is essential for any serious discussion of 
the media, and he does it very well. I have found his work both 
interesting and highly important, and it has been essential to my own 
understanding of public attitudes towards austerity. This book will be a 
must read for anyone who has an interest in the media today.– *Professor 
Simon Wren-Lewis*, University of Oxford


A book that explores two of the greatest media conundrums: how people 
are influenced by press and broadcasting outletseven when they say they 
distrust them; and how alternatives to the status quo are successfully 
marginalised. - *Roy Greenslade , *Guardian


Many of us who argued for an alternative to no-strings-attached bank 
bailouts followed by axe-wielding austerity in the wake of the 2008 
financial meltdown have despaired at the mainstream media’s subservience 
to the neoliberal consensus view that both of these policies were 
inevitable. Mike Berry’s incisive and meticulous study of the 
circumstances in which austerity came to dominate the media narrative, 
and his conclusions on the implications for future progressive 
governments in the UK, are essential reading. *Howard Reed*, Former 
chief economist at the IPPR.


*Mike Berry* is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Journalism, Media and 
Cultural Studies at Cardiff University, UK. His previous books include 
/More Bad News from Israel/ (Pluto, 2011) and /Terrorism, Elections and 
Democracy/ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) and he has produced research for 
organisations such as the BBC Trust, UNHCR, TUC and NSPCC.

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