ABSTRACT
By the late 2000s, income inequality had risen noticeably within 17 of the 22 OECD countries, with major increases in the UK and the US. This chapter examines media discourse on income inequality over time to understand better the agenda-setting process in the public sphere. Media issue attention measures are one part of an agenda-setting approach to social problems, which assesses the flow of salience from mass media to public perception and ultimately into government action. Some of the increase in media coverage may simply be picking up on this growing number of academic studies, especially when they are undertaken by major research bodies that cultivate media relations and prepare press releases.
