ABSTRACT

Inequality blights populations within many developed economies. This chapter explores how within BBC and ITV news coverage of inequality, poverty and wealth in 2014, economic growth emerges as a strong theme. Despite criticism that capitalism does not help many citizens but advances environmental damage, growth is consistently championed, but rarely challenged. The chapter shows that lexical choices, selective editing, strong visual images and metaphors incorporating dynamic movement all develop growth as a panacea. Moreover, even when it is conceded that the benefits of growth do not extend beyond the realms of financial elites, within a large sample of news bulletins, there is only one example of a link with the redistributive mechanisms that would provide growth benefits to everyone. Even in this single case, the momentum within the argument for progressive taxation is quickly lost, contributing to the conclusion that TV news rarely departs from promoting neoliberal economics.