A round-table discussion jointly sponsored by the Department of Journalism, City University London and the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. 

After the financial crisis, governments in both the UK and Europe adopted policies of austerity to reduce growing public sector deficits. Now, seven years later, these policies are increasingly being questioned by new political movements, both on the right and left. Both the crisis over migration into the EU, and the debate over Brexit in the UK, are linked to growing public concerns about worsening economic opportunities and strains on public services. The central role of the media in shaping the debate on austerity raises a number of questions:
– Was the media too hasty to embrace austerity as the only viable option?
– Has the climate of opinion now turned?
– How can we improve the quality of the debate on alternative economic policies?
– How well does the press coverage of Brexit reflect the economic arguments?