Scroungers, spongers, parasites …
These are just are some of the terms that are typically used, with increasing frequency, to describe the most vulnerable in our society, whether they be the sick, the disabled, or the unemployed. Long a popular scapegoat for all manner of social ills, under austerity we've seen hostility towards benefit claimants reach new levels of hysteria, with the 'undeserving poor' blamed for everything from crime to even rising levels of child abuse.
While the tabloid press has played its role in fuelling this hysteria, the proliferation of social media has added a disturbing new dimension to this process, spreading and reinforcing scare stories, while normalising the perception of poverty as a form of 'deviancy' that runs contrary to the neoliberal agenda. Provocative and illuminating, Scroungers explores and analyses the ways in which the poor are portrayed both in print and online, placing these attitudes in a wider breakdown of social trust and community cohesion.
ISBN: | 9781786992130 |
Publication date: | 15th February 2019 |
Author: | James Morrison |
Publisher: | Zed Books an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) |
Format: | Paperback |
Pagination: | 332 pages |
Genres: |
Sociology Media studies: internet, digital media and society Poverty and precarity Welfare and benefit systems Publishing industry and journalism Cultural studies |