Scroungers Hardcover

James Morrison

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.

1786992140

9781786992147

English

Zed Books

15-Feb-19

James Morrison is a reader in journalism at Robert Gordon University, as well as a senior examiner for the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). Before entering academia he spent over a decade as a staff reporter for newspapers including the Independent on Sunday as well as working as a freelance writer for publications including the Guardian. His previous books include Familiar Strangers, Juvenile Panic and the British Press: The Decline of Social Trust (2016), Journalism: The Essentials of Writing and Reporting (2015) and Essential Public Affairs for Journalists (2009).