Analysing entertainment documentaries with discursive psychology incorporating Goffman’s concept of frames

Discursive approaches have established how entertainment documentaries about the super-rich can be analysed as a form of political communication to explore how positions on wealth inequality are legitimised. Programmes broadcast in the UK draw upon neoliberal ideology to present extreme wealth as the product of individual achievements as the nation is positioned as a meritocracy. This article offers an illustrative example of how ostentatious spending is accounted for within entertainment documentaries. Discursive psychology that incorporated Goffman’s concept of ‘frames’ was applied to the analysis of 41.5 hours of non-subscription UK television data from 2016 that included the term ‘super-rich’. Ostentatious consumption is presented as normal, and three interpretative repertoires are employed to support this: (1) deservingness of the super-rich, (2) expenditure as an investment, and (3) trickle-down effect. The application of frames highlights the inequalities present through the contrasts between speakers’ wealth status and environment within the discourse.