Mediatizing the “super-rich,” normalizing privilege

ABSTRACT

The argument we make here is a straightforward one: constant news-media coverage of the excessive lifestyles and consumption patterns of the so called “super-rich” normalize their extreme privilege, while obfuscating the privilege of many others. We examine a series of typical news stories (“print” and “broadcast”) together with examples of popular books to show how the mediatization of the “super-rich” is ambivalently organized through a mixture of celebratory and derisive stances. In tandem with the logics of capital and the tenets of consumer culture, these lurid spectacles fuel a complex mix of anxiety and desire among target readers–viewers, while absolving us from responsibility for our own relatively and seemingly modest excesses. We are invited also to defend ourselves on the grounds of superior judgement and taste.

KEYWORDS:

• Privilege
• “super-rich” lifestyles
• mediatization
• elitist stancetaking
• normalization
• obfuscation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Adam Jaworski is Chair Professor of Sociolinguistics in the School of English at the University of Hong Kong.

Crispin Thurlow is Professor of Language and Communication in the Department of English at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

ORCID

Adam Jaworski http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9194-5725

Crispin Thurlow http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3203-9255

Notes

1. Avoiding endless scare-quoting, we capitalize the label Super-Rich to highlight its socially constructed nature and the inherently relative nature of both “super” and “rich.” We do not doubt that there are people whose wealth is absolutely extreme, but are sensitive to global scales of privilege (see Credit Suisse Wealth Report 2016).

2. The transcribed and visual quotes from data sources are reproduced under “fair use” standards for the purposes of scholarly comment and critique.

3. Guardian reader demographics available here: https://www.theguardian.com/advertising/demographic-profile-of-guardian-readers.