News as business: the global financial crisis and Occupy movement in the Wall Street Journal

Abstract

This article examines a leading US business newspaper's coverage of the global financial crisis (GFC) and Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the most influential international business newspaper with a global audience, is used as a case study. Although the GFC and OWS are closely related, we found significant differences in the way that they were reported in business news. Specifically, we found divergent frames in the WSJ's coverage: an ‘institutional’ framing of the GFC starkly differs from a ‘hegemonic’ framing of OWS. We relate this framing divergence to (1) the instability and inconsistencies in journalism's ‘occupational ideology’ and (2) the challenges social movements encounter in influencing public discourse.