Reflections on neoliberal discourse in the media

an entanglement in the service of austerity

Abstract

This article engages in a fresh perspective on the relationship between neoliberal discourse and the dominant media. It first examines what the media are and do — the effects they have on our behaviour — before recalling how, historically, media propaganda and vertical democracy are intertwined.Drawing on specific theoretical and historical elements, it then demonstrates how neoliberal discourse is a discourse of reaction and counterattack against social progress: it is, fundamentally, a discourse of austerity.The mobilization of Foucauldian governmentality finally allows to show how neoliberal discourse uses and adapts to the dominant media to “manufacture” public opinion acceptability of austerity programs with the ultimate goal of “legally ensuring the sustainability of austerity policies.” The media are thus, in a way, “specific apparatuses” of neoliberal governmentality.