In this book, the Glasgow University Meda Group bring their innovative and forensic three-dimensional methodological approach to understanding the role of media in shaping Britain’s cost of living crisis.  In the context of neoliberal austerity, welfare cuts and the corporate capture of media platforms, it provides evidence of an increasing disconnect between the narratives promoted by the mainstream media and the interests, priorities and lived experiences of audiences – whilst charting the parallel emergence of new models of trust which leave them vulnerable to bad faith actors promoting disinformation online.

Catherine Happer is Director of the Glasgow University Media Group and author of The Construction of Public Opinion in a Digital Age, (Manchester University Press).

Paul Reilly is Senior Lecturer in Communications, Media and Democracy at the University of Glasgow and author of Digital Contention in a divided society: social media, parades and protest in Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press).

Alison Eldridge is Lecturer in the Media, Culture and Society subject group at the University of Glasgow and co-editor of Revisiting Culture and Society: Towards a Politics of Social Transformation.