Abstract: A clear sign of the heightened interest in economic inequality was the surprising popularity of Thomas Piketty's book, Capital in the Twenty‐First Century, presenting a dense synopsis and major contribution to the economics of inequality. This article investigates discourses on inequality in news media, through the highly controversial debate raised by Piketty's best‐selling book, in selected print media in four European countries. We conceive of the media as having an impact on the perceptions and knowledge of economic processes #thus influencing preferences of the public for economic policy making. This is in line with Veblen #who terms the press an “educational system.” Regarding the topics of inequality; we will show that media coverage leads to a biased picture of both inequality and the role of redistribution policies to possibly curb such a development

中文翻译：

---

“现在，问题究竟是什么？” 经济不平等和再分配政策的媒体报道：皮凯蒂案例

摘要：托马斯·皮凯蒂 (Thomas Piketty) 的著作《二十一世纪的资本》(Capital in the 21 Century) 出人意料地大受欢迎，这是人们对经济不平等越来越感兴趣的一个明显迹象，该书对不平等经济学进行了详尽的概述和重大贡献。本文通过皮凯蒂的畅销书在四个欧洲国家的选定印刷媒体中引发的极具争议的辩论，调查了新闻媒体中关于不平等的话语。我们认为媒体会对经济过程的看法和知识产生影响#从而影响公众对经济政策制定的偏好。这与凡勃伦#who 将新闻界称为“教育系统”是一致的。关于不平等问题；