One-dimensional times: a dialectical response to the Irish Times’ coverage of the global financial crisis

ABSTRACT

A growing literature claims that critique of neoliberal capitalism after the global financial crisis (GFC) has been ‘captured’ within the logic of capital. Such research argues that ‘capture’ is achieved through a process whereby critique of neoliberalism is transformed into arguments for more neoliberalism. This creates a one-dimensional ‘recovery’ discourse. Drawing on Marcuse’s theory outlining ‘one-dimensional society’ and critical discourse analysis, this study assesses the relevancy of such claims for an Irish medium, the Irish Times, through an examination of GFC-related discourse during 2009–2010. This study finds that economic discourse in the Irish Times is captured when organisational bias allows pro-neoliberal actors from business and government privileged access to discourse production. We engage a call from organisation studies for a dialectical reading of captured discourse. We end with a discussion of the limits of this reflexive approach to capitalism’s contradictions for disrupting its ongoing hegemony.

KEYWORDS:

• Global financial crisis
• dialectic
• neoliberalism
• critical discourse analysis
• media studies
• ‘one-dimensional society’

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies in the National University of Ireland, Galway for funding for this research. Kate Kenny is thanked for her great support, as is Campbell Jones, and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive commentary. Any mistakes are the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCiD

Naoise McDonagh http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6136-1166