Anti-Austerity and Media Activism - an IAMCR 2016 pre-conference

The conference will seek to highlight the connections between austerity and the media and, in particular, to highlight the role of communications in fostering anti-austerity movements. We invite papers that illustrate how:

• Media outlets have helped to construct contemporary narratives of austerity

• Mainstream media have related to discourses of austerity

• Non-mainstream media have attempted to counter austerity narratives

• Activists and campaigners have sought to mobilise against both media and political elites in order to press for media reform, to secure democratic gains and to protect public spaces.