Netflix and Over the Top Politics? The Mechanism TV series and the dynamics of entertainment intervention

Author(s):  
Nahuel Ribke

Produced and released by Netflix in March 2018, The Mechanism (2018–), a web series, fictionalised the Lava Jato operation, a series of criminal investigations about corruption in the Brazilian political system that led to the imprisonment of leading Brazilian politicians and businessmen. Analysing the series along with the media coverage in the Brazilian mainstream online and printed press, this article examines the complex and troublesome relationship between an ongoing criminal investigation with ramifications for the political system and its fictionalisation on a worldwide internet television platform.

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Neri Serneri

The de-legitimisation of the Italian political system that culminated in the upheavals of the late 1980s has permitted a very public re-examination of the meaning and significance of both the Fascist regime and the Resistance to it. Although debates between historians had already begun over these issues, they have been thrust into the media spotlight now that the political consensus surrounding their interpretation has collapsed. The following two articles examine both the content and conduct of these debates, and consider the extent to which they have contributed to a reassessment of the history of these periods. Naturally the opinions expressed in these articles are solely those of the authors themselves: Contemporary European History would welcome further comments and contributions concerning this rethinking of the contemporary Italian experience.


Author(s):  
Rocío Zamora ◽  
Juan Antonio Marín Albadalejo

Resumen Lo que algunos ya llaman una cultura política del escándalo (Barkin, 1999; Thompson, 2001; Castells, 2009) ha supuesto el reconocimiento del poder de los medios en la construcción simbólica del escándalo, a partir del énfasis en ciertos marcos interpretativos con los que se narran las conductas que condicionan la percepción pública de los escándalos políticos. Este trabajo se centra en la representación simbólica de los escándalos de corrupción política. El análisis de la cobertura periodística sobre un caso de gran actualidad en Murcia, el ‘caso Umbra’, demuestra que, además de por el relato político-técnico, legal y moral, los escándalos de corrupción política pueden ser también enmarcados desde el enfoque reputacional, es decir, a partir de preocupación por el deterioro de la imagen que la proliferación de escándalos de corrupción política ofrece sobre un territorio concreto y  sus instituciones.Palabras clave Escándalo político, corrupción política, framing, cultura política, poder político.AbstractWe live in, as some scholars called, a scandal political culture (Barkin, 1999; Thompson, 2001; Castells, 2009) that has supposed the recognition of the media power in the symbolic construction of scandals, where the emphasis in certain interpretive frames with which behaviours are narrated determine public perceptions of the political scandals. This article focuses on the symbolic representation of political corruption scandals. The analysis of the media coverage on this great current importance case in Murcia, called the ‘Umbra’ case, demonstrates that, besides the political- technical, legal and moral, the political corruption, scandals can be framed also from the reputation approach, that is to say, from the worried deterioration on the public image that political corruption scandals proliferation supposes on a concrete territory and his institutions.Keywords Political scandal, political corruption, framing, political culture, political power.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-519
Author(s):  
Pascal D. König ◽  
Markus B. Siewert

Why don’t citizens give governments credit when they deliver on electoral pledges? This article develops an original analytical framework that addresses this important but under-researched question. It focuses on the concept of ‘credit claiming’, which is the opposite of ‘blame shifting’, and draws together existing research to identify a number of significant hurdles that governments must overcome in order to gain recognition for achievements. It highlights the challenges which policymakers face in communicating with citizens in an increasingly mediatised public sphere, and the extent to which their credit claiming efforts rely on the media as a ‘transmission belt’. It concludes that in liberal democracies governments are fighting an uphill battle to gain citizens’ support and secure trust in broader democratic institutions and the political system as a whole.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 1641-1656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uwe Volkmann

It is a long-established commonplace in any debate on immigration that immigrants should integrate into their receiving society. But integrate into what precisely? Into the labor market, into the legal order, into the political system, into a national culture whatever this might comprise? The Article tries to approach the question from the legal point of view and looks for hints or clues in the constitution which might help us with the answer. For this purpose, it explores the general theory of the constitution as it has been shaped by its professional interpreters as well as by political actors, the media and the public. The main intuition is that “constitution” is not only a written document, a text with a predefined, though maybe hidden meaning; instead, it is a social practice evolving over time and thereby reflecting the shared convictions of a political community of what is just and right. Talking about constitutional expectations toward immigrants then also tells us something about ourselves: about who we are and what kind of community we want to live in. As it turns out, we may not have a very clear idea of that.


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 685-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Gingras

Résumé.Dans ce texte, nous tentons d'évaluer le rôle sociopolitique des journalistes en posant les éléments fondamentaux d'une conceptualisation du rôle des médias en démocratie et en analysant les résultats d'une recherche empirique sur l'engagement des journalistes envers la démocratie menée de l'été 2008 au printemps 2010. Notre étude prend appui sur la dichotomie entre un rôle actif des médias et un rôle instrumental face au système politique, dichotomie que nous faisons porter sur les journalistes. Nous prétendons que les médias et les journalistes jouent le rôle de « médiateurs » dans les sociétés libérales, c'est-à-dire d'agents individuels ou collectifs par qui transitent des messages explicites ou implicites; ces agents ajoutent une couche de sens par diverses méthodes dont la sélection des nouvelles, la hiérarchisation des sujets ou le cadrage de personnes ou d'événements.Abstract.This paper aims to assess the sociopolitical role of journalists through a conceptual approach linking media and democracy and through an analysis of the data resulting from an investigation of journalists' commitment to democracy that was conducted from the summer of 2008 to the spring of 2010. Our study is founded on the dichotomy between an active role for the media and an instrumental one in the face of the political system, and this dichotomy is applied to journalists. We believe that the media and journalists function as “mediators” in liberal societies, that is, as individual or collective agents through whom explicit or implicit messages pass; these agents add a layer of signification by diverse methods, among which are the selection of news, the categorization of issues or the framing of individuals or events.


Author(s):  
Stefaan Walgrave ◽  
Peter Van Aelst

Recently, the number of studies examining whether media coverage has an effect on the political agenda has been growing strongly. Most studies found that preceding media coverage does exert an effect on the subsequent attention for issues by political actors. These effects are contingent, though, they depend on the type of issue and the type of political actor one is dealing with. Most extant work has drawn on aggregate time-series designs, and the field is as good as fully non-comparative. To further develop our knowledge about how and why the mass media exert influence on the political agenda, three ways forward are suggested. First, we need better theory about why political actors would adopt media issues and start devoting attention to them. The core of such a theory should be the notion of the applicability of information encapsulated in the media coverage to the goals and the task at hand of the political actors. Media information has a number of features that make it very attractive for political actors to use—it is often negative, for instance. Second, we plead for a disaggregation of the level of analysis from the institutional level (e.g., parliament) or the collective actor level (e.g., party) to the individual level (e.g., members of parliament). Since individuals process media information, and since the goals and tasks of individuals that trigger the applicability mechanism are diverse, the best way to move forward is to tackle the agenda setting puzzle at the individual level. This implies surveying individual elites or, even better, implementing experimental designs to individual elite actors. Third, the field is in dire need of comparative work comparing how political actors respond to media coverage across countries or political systems.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Schimpfössl ◽  
Ilya Yablokov

This collection of articles deals with the history and the current state of Russia’s media elite. It defines three groups of media elites; owners of media outlets, media managers and prominent journalists. All those groups are under pressure of being agreeable to the Kremlin and pleasing their audiences with their products and output. The Kremlin’s tightened control over the media forced some media professionals out, losing their jobs or emigrating. The majority, however, have kept their positions. They are reasonably well networked and integrated into the political system and successfully employ strategies partly inherited from Soviet times. The collection of articles provides insights into the inner working of Russian media, delivering a nuanced understanding of media control, censorship and self-censorship.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venera Nauryzova ◽  
Umit Kairova

The article examines the history of the development of the Constitution and the status of constitutional values, the rule of law. The foundations of the constitutional reform have been determined. The political system of the state is clearly spelled out in our constitution. At the same time, this law for the first time describes the core of the political system - the presidential system. Today we can say that our Constitution and laws allow us to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurship. This norm defines the main purpose, the scope of public relations to be regulated by constitutional laws, laws, Presidential Decrees, regulations of government agencies of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Attention should be paid to the role, meaning and features of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan as the main document of the country. In addition, it tells about the adoption of our Constitution, its achievements, measures to prove that Kazakhstan is a legal state. As soon as the draft of the new Constitution was published in the media for public discussion, it can be said that in fact the whole country began its work. It is said that the Constitution of the Republic is the initiator of a new stage of constitutional development, which has a high legal force and stability, strengthens and regulates the basic social relations in the field of legal status of citizens, civil society institutions, state organizations and government agencies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Anita McMurtry

Now that media coverage has waned, it is the time for reflecting on last year’s highs and lows as we make improvements for the future. Extensively covered in the media, the midterm election cycle was a 2018 event for the history books. These developments still present a unique opportunity for teaching civic engagement to students. We professors may have been energetic and eager about discussing the issues in our classrooms. On the contrary, some of our students might have lacked the same enthusiasm. Others may have expressed outright anxiety regarding the political process. What can we do to help with such issues in the future?


Author(s):  
Laurits Harmer Lassen ◽  
Søren Kjellberg Ishøy

The article describes the American presidential election in the two largest American and Danish newspapers: USA Today, New York Times, Jyllands-Posten and Politiken. Two weeks of news about the election have been analysed and showed that around 60 to 70 percent of all stories focused on the political processes contrary to the political substance. At the same time the analysis show that in broad terms the Danish and American newspapers coverage are quite similar. On the basis of theories of democracy the article makes a critique of the media coverage and give possible explanations of, why the focus is more on the political game than on the political substance.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document