Critical Explorations of Media and Inequality

Majka Ryan is associate professor in work and employment at the University of Limerick.Martin J. Power is associate professor of sociology at the University of Limerick.Eoin Devereux is professor of sociology at the University of Limerick.

Against any presumption that the fragmentation of mass media and its audiences, the disorienting chatter of online platforms, or the decline of ‘legacy’ journalism might negate our capacity for critique, Critical Explorations of Media and Inequality calls our attention to the always political character of the media and to diverse manifestations of its continuing power. Interdisciplinary and internationalist in spirit, contributions to this engaging volume highlight how inequality both constitutes and is constituted by our encounters with media. Embracing a plurality of contexts and actors—from local to global, from newsrooms to cinema, from soap operas to online and print outlets—it offers accessible and generative analyses of the contemporary politics of media access, representation and voice.

• List of TablesList of FiguresIntroduction: Through the Looking Glass: Critical Perspectives on Media and Inequality – Martin J. Power, Majka Ryan, and Eoin DevereuxChapter 1: Inequality in the Newsroom: Understanding Journalism Work Through a Labour lens – Kathryn Hayes and Henry SilkeChapter 2: Who is Entitled to Interesting Work? Inequality and the Cultural Lives of the British Working Class – Lisa McKenzieChapter 3:Representations of Poverty and Inequality in Hindi Cinema – Ameeta MotwaniChapter 4: Interrogating Absence/Presence in the Representations of Poverty and the Poor in South African Soap Opera Dramas – Khanyile MlotshwaChapter 5: A System of Negative Effects: Insights From Interviews with U.S. News Consumers Below the Poverty Line – David J. Park and Juliet PintoChapter 6: Sensationalism of Suffering: The 'Kerala Model' Media Discourse of Poverty Porn – Sony Jalarajan Raj and Adith K. SureshChapter 7: Continuity of Poverty: Religion, Populism and Hegemony. – Ugur BalogluChapter 8: Poverty Where? Reframing Deprivation and Reportage of the Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria – Olufunmilayo Jinadu, Fergal Quinn and Elaine VaughanChapter 9: Culinary Skills or Income Inequality? Mediating Food Poverty in Limerick, Ireland – Majka Ryan, Martin J. Power and Eoin DevereuxChapter 10: “If it’s travellers, its news value is less” Media Constructions of Fratricide-Suicide in an Ethnic Minority Community – Audrey GalvinChapter 11: Media Representations of Irish Travellers: Implications for their Day to Day Lives? – Sindy Joyce, Martin J. Power and Eoin DevereuxChapter 12: Framing Syrian Migration in Irish Print Media: A Critical Analysis of Evolving Narratives – Moufida BenmoussaChapter 13: What Do the Unhoused Tell: A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Stories Written by Unhoused People – Vojtech DvorakBibliographyIndexAbout the Contributors