News media representations of the Trade Union Act (2016) and their links to liberal theory

Abstract

This paper explores how concepts from two influential strands of liberalism, new liberalism and neoliberalism, are represented in a sample of online media articles by analysing news coverage of the Trade Union Act (2016). The analysis centres on internet news items published on the websites of The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Sky News, and BBC News. To systematise the analysis, three thematic axes were constructed: a) Democracy, Law and Order; b) Civil and Labour Rights; c) Military Metaphors, Privileges and Trade Unions.

Keywords

• Trade Union Act
• liberalism
• neoliberalism
• new liberalism
• news
• media representations,