ABSTRACT
The 2008 Great Financial Crisis led to a sharp increase in sovereign debt as states sought to prevent a major depression becoming a slump. This chapter examines how the debates over how to respond to the crisis were covered in the British media and the impact that reporting had on public knowledge and attitudes. To do this it combines thematic content analysis of both print and broadcast coverage with the findings of audience focus groups and public opinion polling. The chapter concludes that media reports had several key impacts: a) they played a key role in establishing the public belief that the deficit was the result of government overspending especially in areas such as welfare and immigration; b) they led the public to believe that the deficit was highly dangerous and needed to be dealt with quickly; and c) they limited discussion of responses to the rise in the deficit to minor variations of austerity policies, which meant that viewers were left unaware of alternatives. Overall this chapter finds that press and broadcasting defined the origins, consequences and solutions to the rise in public debt in a high proscribed way which helped to increase public support for austerity policies.
