Fertile debates: a comparative account of low fertility in the British and Greek national press

This article compares how the British and Greek national press debated the phenomenon of low fertility between 2001 and 2009. Specifically, it presents an overview of each set of newspapers' perspectives on the issue, and the most prevalent causes, consequences and solutions with which they associated it. Differences between the print media's representations are not only attributed to the distinct 'policy climate' and 'demographic experience' of each country but also to culturally specific ideologies concerning the nation, gender, motherhood and personhood. Newspapers do not simply mirror reality but also help to construct it by legitimising dominant discourses about how persons, especially women, ought to manage their fertility. Studying the media is, therefore, a means of understanding the broader contexts in which individuals' reproductive lives are shaped and experienced.