Exploring media construction of investment banking as dirty work Structured Abstract:Purpose -To explore how two kinds of UK-based media positioned investment banking as dirty work during the financial crisis, thereby engaging in moral enterprise (Becker 1963) and contributing to the shaping of society's normative contours (Cohen 1972).Design/methodology -We employ rhetorical analysis to explore how newspaper editorials and an online blog portray investment banking as tainted between April 2008 and October
2009.Findings -These media sources construct the values and behaviours of investment bankers, rather than the tasks of their occupation, as morally tainted. Through specific rhetorical strategies they advance three key arguments: bankers are morally tainted because their wealth is excessive; because their wealth is not earned; and because they are selfish and materialist.Originality/value -In investigating media designations of investment banking as dirty work, the paper addresses two aspects of dirty work which are underexplored. Firstly it examines a high-prestige occupation and secondly investigates the construction and attribution of taint to a previously untainted occupation. It makes two methodological contributions to the literature: contributing to the nascent interest in the media's construction of dirty work (for example, Grandy and Mavin 2012); and using rhetorical analysis to study the construction of taint.
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