Ideology, Class, Crisis and Power: The Role of the Print Media in the Representation of Economic Crisis and Political Policy in Ireland (2007-2009). Henry Silke BA (Hons) This thesis is submitted to Dublin City University for the award of a Ph.D in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. January 2015 School of Communications Supervisor: Prof. Paschal Preston 1 I hereby certify that that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Ph.D is entirely my own work, and that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed:_________________________________ (Candidate) ID No.: 56109342 Date: ________________ 2 Chapter Chapter Title Sub- Sub-Chapter Title Chapter 1 Introduction 11 2 Politics Power and Ideology 2.1 The State, Class and Political 25 Power 2.2 The Invisible Conflict: Theories 47 of Ideology, Hegemony & Discourse 3 Economics, World Systems and Crisis 3.1 A House or a Home? Use 71 Value/Exchange Value and Crisis Theory 3.2 World System Theory, 84 Finacialisation, Hegemony and Crisis 3.3 3.3 Dependency and Crisis: Irish 90 Political Economy in the Neoliberal Age 4 The Media: Structure, Politics, Power and 4.1 Critical Political Economy and 112 Crisis the study of Communications and the Media 4.2 The Role of the Media in Market 137 Systems – Information, Reflexivity and Ideology 4.3 Deconstructing Ideologies: 149 Analysing the Press 5 The Property Fetish and Ideology: The Irish 169 Times, The Irish Independent, and the Irish Property Market 2007 6 An Innovative Solution? The Irish Times and 223 the Irish Independent and the Treatment of the Blanket Bank Guarantee 7 Protecting capitalism from itself? The Irish 257 Times and Irish Independent and the treatment of the National Asset Management Agency 8 The Irish Times and Irish Independent 298 and the Economic Crisis 9 Media and Crisis: Analysis, 312 Implications, Limitations and Future Possibilities of Research. Bibliography 332 Appendices 358 Figure 1.1 The Structure of the Thesis 3 Detailed Contents 1.0 Chapter One: Introduction ..................................................................................... 11 1.1 The Media and the Crisis ............................................................................... 13 1.2 Key issues in Media and Communications Theory: Structure, Agency and Content ................................................................................................................. 14 1.3 Media, Communications, Markets and Crisis ................................................ 17 1.4 Key Research Questions and Themes ............................................................ 17 1.5 The Structure of the Thesis: ........................................................................... 21 2.0 Chapter Two: Politics, Power and Ideology .......................................................... 25 2.1The State, Class and Political Power ...................................................................... 25 2.1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 25 2.1.2 Classical Marxist Theory: Base, Superstructure and the State .................. 25 2.1.3 The Instrumentalist State ............................................................................ 26 2.1.4 The Structuralist State ................................................................................. 28 2.1.5 Gramsci and Hegemony: The Re-Unification of Civil & Political Process 29 2.1.6 The State as an Actor .................................................................................. 30 2.1.7 Neo-Marxism, Structuralism and the ‗Relatively Autonomous‘ State ....... 31 2.1.8 The Relationship between State and Class ................................................. 33 2.1.9 International Influences on State Power ..................................................... 36 2.1.10 Corporatist Theory .................................................................................... 36 2.1.11 Post-Structural Theories of the State: Foucault, the State and Power Networks. ............................................................................................................. 37 2.1.12 Discourse Theory and the State ................................................................ 38 2.1.13 Studying the State: Pluralist Political theory ............................................ 40 2.1.14 Lukes‘ Critique of the Pluralist Method and the Three Dimensional Conception of Power as a Methodology .............................................................. 41 2.1.15 The One Dimensional View of Power ...................................................... 41 2.1.16 Bacharch and Baratz, Agenda, and the Two Dimensional View of Power .............................................................................................................................. 42 2.1.17 The Three Dimensional View of Power: Ideology ................................... 42 2.1.18 Neo-Pluralism and Structure ..................................................................... 43 2.1.19 The Neo-liberal State ................................................................................ 44 2.1.20 Authoritarian Liberty – The Neo-Liberal State in Practice ..................... 45 2.1.21 Conclusion: The State in Political and Latent Class Conflict ................... 46 2.2 The Invisible Conflict: Theories of Ideology, Discourse and Hegemony ............ 47 2.2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 47 2.2.2 Ideology and Ideologies, Concepts and Definitions ................................... 47 2.2.3 Marx and Ideologies ................................................................................... 49 2.2.4 Political Ideology: Base and Superstructure ............................................... 52 2.2.5 The Materialist View of Individual Consciousness .................................... 53 2.2.6 Louis Althusser: The Reproduction and Internalisation of Domination. .... 54 2.2.7 Ideology, Epistemology and the Concept of ‗False Consciousness‘ .......... 55 2.2.8 Antonio Gramsci and the theory of Hegemony .......................................... 58 2.2.9 Social and Political Superstructure: Consensus and Coercion ................... 59 2.2.10 The ‗War of Position‘ and the Hegemony of the Proletariat .................... 60 2.2.11 The Relevance of the Theory of Hegemony Today .................................. 61 2.2.12 Language, Discourse and Power ............................................................... 62 2.2.13 Politics, the Public Sphere, and the Process of Legitimation ................... 64 2.2.14 Conclusion: The Relevance of Ideology, Hegemony and Discourse in Contemporary Political and Economic Conflict .................................................. 66 4 3.0 Chapter 3: Capital, Crisis and Dependency ........................................................... 71 3.1 - A House or a Home: Use Value, Exchange Value, Crisis Theory and Ideology 71 3.1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 71 3.1.2 Value and Ideology ..................................................................................... 71 3.1.3 Property and the State ................................................................................. 75 3.1.4 Use and Exchange Value in the General Formula of Capital ..................... 76 3.1.5 Crisis and Causation? Financialisation, Overproduction, and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Decline. ........................................................................... 78 3.1.6 The Underconsumption/Overproduction School ........................................ 79 3.1.7 The Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Decline ........................................... 80 3.1.8 Overproduction in the Built Environment .................................................. 82 3.2 World System Theory, Finacialisation, Hegemony and Crisis .............................. 84 3.2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 84 3.2.2 World System Economic Cycles and Finance Capitalism .......................... 84 3.2.3 Foreign Direct Investment and World System Theory ............................... 86 3.2.4 World System Theory and Hegemony ........................................................ 88 3.2.5 World System Theory: A Critique .............................................................. 89 3.3 Dependency and Crisis: Irish Political Economy in the Neoliberal Age ............... 90 3.3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 90 3.3.2 The Irish Economy at Independence. .......................................................... 91 3.3.3 Consolidation in the World Market. ........................................................... 92 3.3.4 Protectionism and the Economic War 1932-38. ......................................... 94 3.3.5 Export Led Industrialisation ....................................................................... 95 3.3.6 Social Partnership ......................................................................................