Reporting the cost-of-living crisis: A framing analysis of victims of, and solutions to, the crisis as reported in UK national newspapers 2022-23

Abstract

This paper analyses 1,055 UK national newspaper articles on the cost-of-living crisis published in 18 months between February 2022 and August 2023. This study utilizes framing analysis to examine the reporting of the crisis, with a specific focus on the presentation of those identified as victims of the crisis. The paper also discusses how the news media report individual and macroeconomic solutions to the crisis. The study finds that market rationalism and individualist explanations dominate news coverage of a structural macroeconomic crisis. This study finds an apparent deviation from traditional reporting of poverty in that the news media presents the cost-of-living crisis as universal. As such, the ‘othering’ of people living in poverty is less evident here than in similar studies. The study finds that the framing devices used to communicate the crisis often seek to minimize the impact of inequality, which is at the heart of the current crisis.