Ideology, inequality, and the media . A comparative analysis of the housing crisis in the Irish and Spanish digital media

This comparative research study shows the influence of the ideological alignment of the media of the digital ecosystem concerning economic inequality and, specifically, the housing crisis. It focuses on two countries in the European Union that represent different models: Ireland, where a higher percentage of the population chooses to live in single- family homes, and Spain, whose population, on the other hand, lives more in apartments. They are also representatives of two different media systems: the liberal and the polarized-democratic one. The article explains how digital media shapes the agenda regarding the housing crisis at a time when this vector is discussed throughout Europe as one of the main manifestations of inequality. A content analysis has been carried out on a representative sample of news directly related to the housing crisis in the main Irish and Spanish digital media over three months. The results show greater diversity in the agenda of the Irish media, where there is an emergence of extreme right positions, not yet present in the institutions of the Republic of Eire, while the Spanish media show a more homogeneous agenda. Considering the housing crisis as an effect, and not one of the causes, of inequality leads to diverse positions. The main differences are found in the proposed legal and policymaking solutions in the case of the most left-leaning media.