Reporting the unsayable: Scandalous talk by right-wing populist politicians and the challenge for journalism

Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492110017
Author(s):  
Mats Ekström ◽  
Marianna Patrona ◽  
Joanna Thornborrow
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
News Media ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Analytic Approach ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Commercial Networks ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The Uk

This paper focuses on the moral work of journalism as displayed and enacted in the reporting practices used in news coverage of scandalous talk by right-wing populist (RWP) politicians. Using a qualitative discourse-analytic approach, we analyze a set of cases of journalistic framing of RWP talk recently circulating in Sweden, Greece, France and the UK, and examine ways in which anti-democratic or racist talk is represented within print, online and broadcast news media. We show how the complex dynamics of different kinds of discursive framing of scandalous talk construct boundaries between right and wrong which contribute to processes of normalising populist discourses and agendas. Moreover, we call attention to the challenge that this poses for contemporary journalism both within public service and commercial networks, as reporting on right-wing populism involves a balancing act between disparate constraints and exigencies of journalism.

Looking over the channel: The balance of media coverage about the “refugee crisis” in Germany and the UK

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Maurer ◽  
Jörg Haßler ◽  
Simon Kruschinski ◽  
Pablo Jost
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
British Government ◽  
News Value ◽  
The Uk

Abstract This study compares the balance of newspaper and television news coverage about migration in two countries that were differently affected by the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015 in terms of the geopolitical involvement and numbers of migrants being admitted. Based on a broad consensus among political elites, Germany left its borders open and received about one million migrants mainly from Syria during 2015. In contrast, the conservative British government was heavily attacked by oppositional parties for closing Britain’s borders and, thus, restricting immigration. These different initial situations led to remarkable differences between the news coverage in both countries. In line with news value theory, German media outlets reported much more on migration than did their British counterparts. In line with indexing theory, German news coverage consonantly reflected the consensual view of German political elites, while British news media reported along their general editorial lines.

Exit from Within

2020 ◽  
pp. 137-158
Author(s):  
Alexander Cooley ◽  
Daniel Nexon
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The European Union ◽  
American System ◽  
The Core ◽  
System P ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
Media Environments ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Political Success

Right-wing illiberal movements have enjoyed a run of political success. This manifests in Trump’s capture of the Republican Party and subsequent election; the number of illiberal, right-wing parties that hold or share power in Europe; and the largely right-wing coalition that successfully pushed for the UK to trigger withdrawal from the European Union—and thus sent one of the most stalwart, stable great-power supporters of liberal order and the American system into political chaos. This chapter explores how right-wing populism has emerged as a significant counter-order movement, and how the Kremlin has sought to position itself as a broker among wings of the transnational right. These movements also benefit from highly polarized societies, and piggyback on media environments that cultivate polarization. Because counter-order movements within the core are a major way that hegemonic systems collapse or international orders change, these developments matter to the fate of the American system.

scholarly journals Beyond the ‘refugee crisis’: How the UK news media represent asylum seekers across national boundaries

2020 ◽  
pp. 174804852091323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenda Cooper ◽  
Lindsey Blumell ◽  
Mel Bunce
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Daily News ◽  
News Websites ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
The Uk

Migration is one of the most pressing, divisive issues in global politics today, and media play a crucial role in how communities understand and respond. This study examines how UK newspapers ( n =  974) and popular news websites ( n =  1044) reported on asylum seekers throughout 2017. It contributes to previous literature in two important ways. First, by examining the ‘new normal’ of daily news coverage in the wake of the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe. Second, by looking at how asylum seekers from different regions are represented. The content analysis finds significant variations in how asylum seekers are reported, including terminology use and topics they are associated with. The article also identifies important commonalities in how all asylum seekers are represented – most notably, the dominance of political elites as sources across all media content. It argues that Entman’s ‘cascade network model’ can help to explain this, with elites in one country able to influence transnational reports.

Whose Lives Matter? Race, Space, and the Devaluation of Homicide Victims in Minority Communities

2020 ◽  
pp. 233264922094818
Author(s):  
Kailey White ◽  
Forrest Stuart ◽  
Shannon L. Morrissey
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Predominantly Black ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Color Blind Racism ◽  
Color Blind

The recurring, horrific deaths of minority residents at the hands of police officers and vigilantes have led social movements and international protests to amplify the charge that whereas the loss of White lives is seen as tragic, the loss of Black and Hispanic lives is treated as normal, acceptable, and even inevitable. Building on and advancing theories of “color-blind racism,” the authors examine the process by which the news media uphold and reify the devaluation of Black and Hispanic lives through ostensibly race-neutral language, story lines, and cultural narratives. Drawing on an original data set containing all news articles ( n = 2,245) written about every homicide victim ( n = 762) in Chicago, Illinois, during 2016, the authors use multilevel models to assess the extent to which victims’ race and neighborhood racial composition are associated with the level of attention, or “newsworthiness,” devoted to their deaths. Using two measures of newsworthiness—the amount of coverage and recognition of “complex personhood”—the authors find that victims killed in predominantly Black neighborhoods receive less news coverage than those killed in non-Hispanic White neighborhoods. Those killed in predominantly Black or Hispanic neighborhoods are also less likely to be discussed as multifaceted, complex people. Our analyses underscore the importance of place, especially the racialization of place, in determining which victims are treated as newsworthy. These findings carry important implications for understanding and addressing color-blind racism, news-reporting practices, and territorial stigma in the reproduction of racist ideologies.

scholarly journals Serving the populist agenda. How German public media broadcasters inadvertently facilitate populist movements by evoking fear and anger

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 482-515
Author(s):  
Kimon Kieslich ◽  
Frank Marcinkowski
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
News Media ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Communication Styles ◽  
Commercial Television ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Public Media ◽  
Populist Movements

The term Media Populism is used to indicate a ‘involuntary complicity’ between news media and populist movements based on the convergence of commercial media logic and populist communication style. It grants populists and their messages a high degree of media visibility. According to the literature, this applies more to tabloid media and infotainment content in commercial television than to upmarket media outlets and news programs. In this paper, we refer to another form of involuntary collaboration between news media and populists that is not based on similar communication styles, but simply on the fact that news media have to report on topics which populists claim issue ownership for. This applies foremost to upmarket media and public service broadcasting, which are obliged by their own quality standards or legal mandate to report completely and comprehensively on all topics of public concern. We are especially interested in the emotional response of German audiences to news coverage on two topics: mass migration and the role of Islam in Germany. With the help of two experiments, we demonstrate that public service news reporting on these issues provokes strong negative emotional reactions. What is more, our results indicate that media induced fear and anger lead to increased support for anti-migration and Islam-critical demands. Hence, German public service broadcasters may not only be ‘secret accomplices’ in creating negative emotions towards Muslim migration, but also facilitate populist movements.

scholarly journals Radicalising citizenship education

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-34
Author(s):  
Stuart Moir ◽  
Jim Crowther
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Democratic Life ◽  
The Uk

Democracy faces two key threats today. The first is evident in the growth of authoritarian, right-wing, populism which is evident in a number of European countries and beyond. The second has been the un- dermining of democratic life by neoliberalism. Liberal democracy has aided the latter by the separation of economics from politics and the focus on the individual at the expense of the public sector and the common good. At the same time, some of the virtues of liberal democracy – the separation of powers, for example – are threatened by authoritarianism. We argue the importance of a critical engagement with current versions of democracy by drawing on a more participatory and active democratic tradition. This has significant implications for how we view citizenship and citizenship education. The dominant ver- sion of citizenship education in Scotland and the UK (possibly in Europe too) embodies a ‘minimalist’ model of citizenship through a curriculum for taking personal responsibility. This is inadequate for the challenge democracy faces. We argue the need to ground citizenship education in more radical soil, to nurture a critically engaged and active citizenry capable of challenging the democratic threats of right- wing populism and neoliberal subjectivity.

scholarly journals Black Lives Matter and the Anti-Woke Campaign in the UK

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Pilkington
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
The Us ◽  
Historical Role ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right

The murder of George Floyd by police officers in the US in 2020 reignited the Black live matter movement and reverberated across the world. In the UK many young people demonstrated their determination to resist structural racism and a number of organizations subsequently acknowledged the need to take action to promote race equality and reflect upon their historical role in colonialism and slavery. At the same time, resistance to these challenges has mounted, with right-wing news media and the UK government drawing upon an anti-woke or anti-PC discourse to disparage attempts to combat structural racism and decolonise the curriculum. This chapter argues that the campaign to discredit anti-racism culminated in 2021 in the production of the Sewell report commissioned by the government. This chapter critically examines this report and the discourse which underpins the report. The discourse is consonant with that of the anti-woke campaign propagated by the right-wing news media and the UK government, and entails the reproductoion of rather than opposition to structural racism.

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