Tim Cawood
As the seasons turn and the nights draw in, we continue to track how often the terms ‘recovery’ and ‘green shoots’ appear in the broadsheets. And we ask: can we look to the newspapers for renewed hope, or mere cold comfort?
With only the most intermittent exception, it is the latter. This pessimism has dominated since the news on 23 October that we still haven’t pulled out of the recession.
Our research shows a huge drop-off in references to ‘green shoots’: at a feeble 41 (compared with 94 last month, and 167 in August), it is at its lowest number since 2008. This term has been becoming increasingly unpopular, not to mention mocked, as the situation drags on.
The amount of articles featuring the word ‘recovery’ has fallen to 1316 (from 1685 in September), which puts it about level with the June figures: a month when the Government came under attack for their role in the crisis.
There’s little gentle solace here. The language of attack, war and brutality is prevalent in October’s articles: emotive words like ‘decimated’, ‘pummelled’, ‘crashing’ and ‘shattering’ abound. Our ‘hopes’ are mourned; the ‘tyranny of numbers’ is feared; and we stand in the debris of ‘shopping streets […] like bombsites.’
The purpose of such prose, besides sheer frustration by the authors, is unclear. Are we to rally in the face of this (we shall fight in BHS; we shall fight in Somerfield’s and on the High Street …) or hang our heads in defeat?
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