Silence is Golden A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representation of Billionaires and Economic Inequality in the Swedish News Media Axel Vikström Supervisor: Mia-Marie Hammarlin Examiner: Tobias Linné MSc Media and Communication Studies Department of Communication and Media Lund University 2018 Esse non videri To be, but not to be seen (The motto of the Wallenberg Family, with an estimated fortune of 2000 billion Swedish krona) 2 Abstract Economic inequality is growing rapidly worldwide. Despite research showing that higher inequality within a society corresponds with a higher rate of public health and social problems, there exist little organized resistance against the neo-liberal economic policies that allow the super-rich to pull away from the rest of the population. Even though the causes of poverty cannot be separated from the causes of wealth, poverty has increasingly come to be viewed as a problem that can be solved without worrying about the rich. This thesis embarks from the standpoint that the representations in the news media play a significant role in legitimizing, challenging or in other ways affecting the extent to which the super-rich are regarded as morally deserving their wealth. With the aim of enhancing our understanding of economic inequality and the mediation of the gap between rich and poor, the present thesis investigates how a selection of billionaires was discursively represented in Sweden’s four largest newspapers during 2017. By using tools from critical discourse analysis, the thesis shows how the news media to a great extent do not problematize the increasing wealth of the super-rich within the context of growing economic inequality. The super-rich are represented as a secret community that rarely talks to the press, and while media silence and absence has usually been linked to powerlessness, this thesis instead considers this “struggle for invisibility” as a powerful strategy for maintaining the inequality gap. The analysis further shows how the philanthropy of the super-rich is represented as acts of admirable charity, rather than expressions of absurd inequality. The thesis links these representations to ongoing trends where neo-liberal discourses – centered on individualization and de-politization – have come to enjoy an increasingly hegemonic position, affecting both the production and content of journalism. The mediation of economic inequality has remained an under-researched topic within the field. The conclusions of this study – that the news media are more interested in gazing at the spectacle of the super-rich than critically examining them – suggest that more critical research is needed if the news media’s role as watchdogs for democracy is to prevail. Key words: “Economic inequality”; “The super-rich”; Billionaires; Wealth; “Critical discourse analysis”; “News media”; Neo-liberalism; “Undeserving rich”; “Visibility management”; Silence; Sweden 3 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I want to thank my supervisor Mia-Marie Hammarlin for once again guiding me through a thesis project. Who would have thought that such a serious topic could result in meetings filled with so much laughter? Considering that you also supervised my bachelor thesis back in the days, whatever academic mishaps I may cause in the future is on your hands. I also owe a great deal of gratitude to Professor Annette Hill. If you had not eased my worries after the first week on the master’s program, who knows if this thesis would ever have come into existence? The next time you need a pianist at a symposium, you know whom to call. Dad and Vilde, thank you for reading through an unreasonable amount of drafts and discussing the topic with me hours on end. I also want to thank Ylva, Adrian, Måns, Mia, Tove, Marcus, Evelina, Ida, Tobias and my classmates for your thoughts and company. Thanks to Sandra and Camilla for your moral support at home (sometimes with words, sometimes with wine). And to Malmö Indiekör for allowing me to sing my worries away every Thursday night. Finally, thanks to John Corner. For all the jokes. 4 Table of contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................... 4 Table of contents ........................................................................................................................ 5 Figures ........................................................................................................................................ 6 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 7 1.1 Pushing the super-rich into focus ..................................................................................... 7 1.2 Aims and research questions ............................................................................................ 9 1.3 Outline of the thesis ........................................................................................................ 10 2. Literature review ................................................................................................................ 11 2.1 The news media and economic inequality ..................................................................... 11 2.2 The news media and the wealthy ................................................................................... 13 2.3 Positioning of the thesis ................................................................................................. 15 3. Theoretical framework ...................................................................................................... 16 3.1 Discourse and hegemony ................................................................................................ 16 3.1.1 A social theory of discourse ................................................................................................. 16 3.1.2 Hegemony ............................................................................................................................. 17 3.2 The neo-liberalization of society .................................................................................... 18 3.2.1 Neo-liberalism as theory and practice .................................................................................. 18 3.2.2 Neo-liberalization and the news media ................................................................................. 19 3.3 The (un)deserving rich ................................................................................................... 22 3.3.1 Rewarding merit/hard work .................................................................................................. 22 3.3.2 Incentives to create wealth that trickles-down ...................................................................... 23 3.3.3 A benign character – philantrocapitalism ............................................................................. 24 3.4 Visibility management and silence ................................................................................. 26 3.4.1 Reversing Thompson: The struggle for invisibility .............................................................. 26 3.4.2 The power of silence ............................................................................................................. 27 4. Methodology and methods ................................................................................................. 29 4.1 Social constructionism ................................................................................................... 29 4.2 Data gathering and sampling .......................................................................................... 29 4.3 Critical discourse analysis and thematic fields ............................................................... 31 5. Context: The neo-liberalization of Sweden ...................................................................... 34 6. Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 36 6.1 The struggle for invisibility ............................................................................................ 37 6.1.1 “It is a no winner” – The silence of the super-rich ............................................................... 38 6.1.2 “We kindly refrain from answering“ – Searching for the super-rich ................................... 40 6.1.3 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 43 6.2 Crumbs from the rich man’s table .................................................................................. 44 6.2.1 “With the money I can spare” – The super-rich as philanthropists ...................................... 44 6.2.2 “An act of love” – The super-rich as benevolent sponsors ................................................... 50 6.2.3 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 52 6.3 The VIP club .................................................................................................................. 53 6.3.1 Two billion hot dogs – Comparison ..................................................................................... 53 6.3.2 The