This paper discusses the background and objectives of a project that is studying the media discourses
on material gaps in Stockholm and St. Petersburg. How do the media illuminate and explain
individuals’ uneven material resources? How do the news agenda, popular culture and advertising
interplay with people’s attitudes towards the social order in which they are positioned? The analysis
is based on some crucial findings from our previous research project (2006-2009) comparing the
inhabitants’ behaviours and attitudes as regards media, society and leisure in St. Petersburg and
Stockholm, which, i.a., showed that material gaps among different groups in society – both between
and within the two cities – are strongly related to people’s well-being and trust in the major political
and social institutions.