Chapter 6. The image of the empty hands
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Diana Jacobsson
Abstract
This article examines the relationship between media and politics by focusing on the question of political responsibility and public accountability, and how this is negotiated in news journalism during an industrial crisis. The empirical analysis focuses on two dimensions of the news report: (1) the political performances and argument strategies; how leading politicians introduce, explain or defend their decisions, actions and points of view, and (2) how the dominant discourses of politics are reproduced, negotiated or opposed, in the journalistic recontextualization. The study suggests that news journalism reproduces and strengthens the neoliberal logic when it adapts to hegemonic problem descriptions and the dominant political frame of the crisis, in terms of what caused it, as well as how it should be solved and by whom. This analysis of the dynamics between political performance and how the question of political responsibility and accountability is represented by journalism provides knowledge of discourses regarding crisis in a specific political regime, and also contributes to the discussion about the relationship between journalistic space and political power within the hegemonic frame of neoliberalism.
Abstract
This article examines the relationship between media and politics by focusing on the question of political responsibility and public accountability, and how this is negotiated in news journalism during an industrial crisis. The empirical analysis focuses on two dimensions of the news report: (1) the political performances and argument strategies; how leading politicians introduce, explain or defend their decisions, actions and points of view, and (2) how the dominant discourses of politics are reproduced, negotiated or opposed, in the journalistic recontextualization. The study suggests that news journalism reproduces and strengthens the neoliberal logic when it adapts to hegemonic problem descriptions and the dominant political frame of the crisis, in terms of what caused it, as well as how it should be solved and by whom. This analysis of the dynamics between political performance and how the question of political responsibility and accountability is represented by journalism provides knowledge of discourses regarding crisis in a specific political regime, and also contributes to the discussion about the relationship between journalistic space and political power within the hegemonic frame of neoliberalism.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Crisis or the media? 1
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Part I. Crisis? What crisis? Theoretical perspectives
- Chapter 1. Rehearsing the crisis 17
- Chapter 2. Reconceptualizing crisis 33
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Part II. Constructions of crisis and responsibility in the print and broadcast media
- Chapter 3. Expressions of blame for the Global Financial Crisis in US, UK and Australian opinion texts 59
- Chapter 4. ‘We – will – go – bank – rupt’ 85
- Chapter 5. “All good people have debts” 107
- Chapter 6. The image of the empty hands 127
- Chapter 7. The visual construction of political crises 151
- Chapter 8. Impending crisis in Scotland 177
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Part III. Crisis constructions in the on-line and social media
- Chapter 9. Civic voice in multimodal news narratives 205
- Chapter 10. Gender in “crisis”, everyday sexism and the Twittersphere 231
- Epilogue 261
- Index 267
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Crisis or the media? 1
-
Part I. Crisis? What crisis? Theoretical perspectives
- Chapter 1. Rehearsing the crisis 17
- Chapter 2. Reconceptualizing crisis 33
-
Part II. Constructions of crisis and responsibility in the print and broadcast media
- Chapter 3. Expressions of blame for the Global Financial Crisis in US, UK and Australian opinion texts 59
- Chapter 4. ‘We – will – go – bank – rupt’ 85
- Chapter 5. “All good people have debts” 107
- Chapter 6. The image of the empty hands 127
- Chapter 7. The visual construction of political crises 151
- Chapter 8. Impending crisis in Scotland 177
-
Part III. Crisis constructions in the on-line and social media
- Chapter 9. Civic voice in multimodal news narratives 205
- Chapter 10. Gender in “crisis”, everyday sexism and the Twittersphere 231
- Epilogue 261
- Index 267
