International high finance against the nation?

Abstract

Abstract This article analyses antisemitic elements in the Austrian print media discourse about the 2008–2010 economic crisis. The relevant discursive statements are examined in the light of a theoretical understanding of antisemitic discursive threads as found in the prevalent modes of presentation of the economic and financial crisis in the media. The first main finding is the broad avoidance of openly antisemitic stereotypes, with the exception of the Neue Kronen Zeitung. The second main finding is that structurally antisemitic discursive elements appear above all where (a) specific groups (“high finance”, “financial sharks”, “speculators”) are singled out as the main culprits, (b) these are opposed to a homogeneously constructed “us” (the “Volk”), and (c) where the formers’ greed is stressed and where they are accused of harming the people. Here we find nationalistic and latent antisemitic discourses, the stereotypical contrasting of finance and production, conspiracy theories and anti-Americanism closely interwoven.