A comparative study of metaphors in press reporting of the Euro crisis

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the use of economic metaphors in the particular case of the European sovereign debt crisis, by the examination of the public discourse as reflected in the daily press. Three countries of the European Union with severe sovereign debt problems (Greece, Italy, and Spain) and three countries without them (Finland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) have been selected for analysis. The general hypothesis, in accordance with the research undertaken in similar studies on economic metaphors and on the uniformity of economic journalism frames, is that one can expect a fairly common use of the same metaphors and with the same weight among countries, types of newspapers, and diverse economic conditions. The findings basically support this hypothesis, showing how difficult it is for the media, even when using rhetorical devices such as economic metaphors, to stand aside from the experts’ discourse or to forge new ways of analyzing economic events outside the traditional and prevalent frames.