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This paper examines discourse, mythology and ideology in media coverage of the financial crisis. A critical discourse analysis examines representations of bankers in the Mail Online. I argue that the mythological trickster archetype contributed complications and paradoxical traits in discourses about the banking crisis. Whilst recollecting their heroic status in 2005 compared to the ridicule they have faced more recently, we see a shift in character traits attributed to bankers. Although the Mail's moral storytelling has called for some form of punishment or legislative reform, there has also been a reluctance to compromise free market values or discuss alternative models of banking. Complex characteristics of trickster mythology reflect current dilemmas and anxieties over the power and practices of financial elites. Whether bankers are providers of wealth or destroyers of economies, their ridicule highlights a sensitive balance of values and interests that operate through mythological storytelling.
Darren Kelsey (Tue,) studied this question.