News Coverage of the Financial Crisis and Public Perception of Government Regulation

The financial crisis that erupted in September 2008 was one of the worst since The Great Depression preceding World War II. It immediately sent both economic and political shockwaves around the world, and rose to the top of political as well as media and public agendas. How the financial crisis affected the political debate, the media coverage and public opinion can however be expected to vary across countries. Against this background, the overall purpose of this chapter is to investigate news coverage of, and public attitudes towards, government regulation in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Our main question is whether the news coverage of the financial crises and public attitudes towards government regulation was similar across countries, or whether they varied systematically across countries following established patterns of political norms and values, power structures and welfare state regimes