The Commercial Fourth Estate in the 2014–2019 Election Campaigns

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katia Mihailova ◽  

The paper presents results of media monitoring during the election campaigns held in Bulgaria between 2014 and 2019 – after the adoption of the new Electoral Code in 2014 until the last local elections in 2019. The main research question is to what extent the media as mediators in the election campaigns know, respect and comply with the legal regulations concerning their activities during such campaigns. The results outline the models of legal socialization of the Fourth Estate in the election campaigns. They also show patterns of compliance and violation of the legal framework. In addition, they reflect the way in which the media work to change the regulations in question. The research sample included between 117 and 180 media service providers in various election campaigns. There were representatives of all media subfields – traditional media, new media, yellow media, brown media, Prokopiev’s media, Peevski’s media, as well as Russian and American “propaganda media”. The period of research includes almost two full election cycles ‒ two parliamentary elections, two European elections, two local elections, and one presidential election which was held after the clear definition of the legal framework for media in the 2014 Electoral Code. No changes were made to this framework during the study and prior to the publication of this paper. This leads to conclusions regarding the electoral legislation and the regulation of the media system in the electoral process.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-116
Author(s):  
Alla Guslyakova ◽  
Nina Guslyakova ◽  
Nailya Valeeva ◽  
Irina Vashunina ◽  
Maria Rudneva ◽  
...  

This study focuses on the notion of power as a way of conceptualisation, representation and functioning in the Russian and English-speaking media discourse and its role in the life of the younger generation of the third millennium. Power and its language have always remained an actual research question of interdisciplinary scientific analysis. However, studying young people’s linguistic and paralinguistic perception of power in the era of digitalisation becomes extremely important due to an empowering role young adults have started playing in modern society employing new media and their discursive communication there. The study regards the theoretical background of the phenomenon of power, based on A. Gramsci’s hegemonic approach. The authors of the research suggest that the media discourse is a hegemonic form of power that maintains its position through the elaboration of a particular worldview, which makes a significant impact on young individuals, the so-called net-generation. The study relies on free-associative and graphic experiments to analyse and perceive “power” concept and its influence on young individuals’ consciousness. Results indicate that both Russian and English-speaking media discourse represents “power” through the prism of anthroponyms as well as toponyms. Besides, the findings of the free-associative experiment, conducted among young adults, demonstrated the dominance of the lexical units belonging to the same grammatical class of words as the stimulus word “power”. Furthermore, a graphic experiment revealed young people’s emotional evaluations of power in media discourse communication. As such, the results suggest that “power” is a natural, complex and multifaceted linguacultural and social phenomenon realised through a variety of linguistic and paralinguistic means, and it produces a dualistic effect on young people’s consciousness through their interaction in the media discourse space.


2015 ◽  
pp. 2132-2153
Author(s):  
Ilona Biernacka-Ligieza

This chapter is an analysis of the voting campaigns in Poland before the local elections in 2002, 2006, and 2010. The 2002 election was chosen as the starting point of the analysis because of the following facts: 1) those were the first direct local elections for mayors/municipality heads, and 2) the number of council members was reduced by law, all of which heralded an interesting competition. The high turnover rate of candidates for councillors across different regions of Poland in 2002, 2006, and 2010 local government elections has been attributed in part to the volatility caused by greater media and public interest in council issues. Many see the media as the most effective way to get voters' attention. Voters also treat media information about candidates as a very important source of knowledge about the candidate, which helps them to vote. However, it is important to check: 1) which medium is the most popular and effective source of information for local public debate; 2) what is the quality of information being published before and after the local elections; and 3) if the “politician activity” and “society response” is only clearly visible during the elections time or maybe “local debate” develops after the election time. The chapter is based on the qualitative and quantitative research. Surveys were carried out in 2002, 2006, and 2010.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-43
Author(s):  
Peter Jusko

The base of this study is Critical Discurs Analysis which deals with argumentation strategies that were recorded in the media public debate in the period March–April 2020 in the Slovak Republic and discusses their connection with the application of eco-social approaches to solving social problems using the example of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The main research question is: What are the eco-social topics linked to solving social problems during the coronavirus pandemic through ecologically oriented social work? On the basis of the presented results these topics are mainly the importance of man’s awareness about our dependence on the environment in which we live created by the topos of disadvantage, that shows short-term positive impact of the pandemic on the environment and it is expected that the situation after pandemic will deteriorate, the support of social cohesion and members of the society and the importance of reducing pressure from the social structures which causes self-exploitation of modern man.


Author(s):  
Ekaterina R. Slesareva ◽  
Оlga A. Ryzhkina ◽  
Anatoli F. Fefelov

The current paper is concerned with linguocultural (ethnolinguistic) analysis of australianisms as culture specific words which are either not found in British English (the mother tongue) or are different from their British counterparts to some extent. The main research question was to identify the key lexemes of this type and establish correlation between them and Australian values (the national identity) as well as ethnostereotypes in modern Australian society. The novelty of the approach to studying these lexical units is in looking at them in terms of their functioning in speech and pragmatics based on the most sensitive to social change and dynamic type of discourse – the media (The material was drawn for the national papers “The Daily Telegraph, Australia” and “The Australian” over the past decade). By means of the random selection method, definitional and contextual analyses six key concepts have been identified (fair go, fair dinkum, larrikin, battler, bludger, (hard) yakka – the last word being aboriginal) and their place in the national identity structure defined. Also, we found some differences in how the same australianisms were presented and ranked in either paper manifesting certain values (for example, battler) or anti-values (for example, bludger) depending on the editorial board’s opinion and/or the content. For instance, “The Daily Telegraph” clearly highlighted the idea of justice (e.g. fair go, fair dinkum), while “The Autralian” put more focus on praising the stubbornness of Australians in the struggle against various obstacles (e.g. battler). References to the boisterous (larrikin) nature of Australians were somewhat more frequent “The Daily Telegraph”, although this concept was quite important for both newspapers. One of the most interesting results we got was a shift in connotations of several australianisms. Thus, it was shown that some words (for example, larrikin), originally having a negative meaning, with time may become positively connoted, characterising a certain previously disapproved type of person / behavior as normal. The study can be continued to include more words of this type, especially aboriginal ones which are already used in media and call for ethnolinguistic (linguocultural) interpretation by researchers.


Tripodos ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 71-87
Author(s):  
Àlvar Peris Blanes ◽  
Javier Pérez-Sánchez

This article analyses how in the main political talk show on television in Spain, La Sexta Noche, the main themes of the European agenda were silenced or conditioned by the themes of the national, regional and local agenda during the last European elections. The media debate was oriented towards an analysis of the results of national elections and the campaign for regional and local elections that allowed for a greater spectacle, thanks to the shock effect of such polarized ideologies and the trivialization of national politics. This research has studied all the shows of the programme broadcast as of the national elections on 28th April 2019 up until the European elections held on 26th May 2019, analysing the main topics covered and the kind and tone of discourses made. Due to the fact that controversial political issues are preferred to more relevant ones in order to generate a spectacle and bigger audiences, the results indicate that the political talk show analysed contributes to the trivialization of debates and the impoverishment of public space, aided by formal elements inherent in the infotainment genre.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahmi Hartati ◽  
Najla Amaly

Instagram is one of the most popular social media in the new media age community, including the people of Indonesia. Based on survey data released by the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII) in 2016 there were 19.9 million Instagram accounts registered. Instagram not only uses the media to post pictures of daily activities, but already uses promotional facilities and to preserve the culture. Madihin is a culture originating from South Kalimantan. The @gazali_rumi account is an Instagram account that has Madihin art posts. Social media can be the latest innovation in preserving this traditional art, while social media has become a characteristic of modern society today.


Author(s):  
Ceren Yegen

Voters in a democracy contribute to the governance process and mediate the legitimacy of equality and pluralism. This is of great importance in terms of understanding and legitimizing the true meaning of democracy. In the last decade, Turkey has experienced many elections. Local elections on March 31, 2019 were very important. They were quite different in terms of the presentation of political parties and their candidates in the media because both politicians and the public ascribed a lot of meaning to these elections. Therefore, the media showed great interest in the March 31, 2019 local elections, frequently featuring public opinion polls, election campaigns, and political statements that informed voters in real time. This chapter examines the media content of the March 31, 2019 elections.


Author(s):  
Ilona Biernacka-Ligieza

This chapter is an analysis of the voting campaigns in Poland before the local elections in 2002, 2006, and 2010. The 2002 election was chosen as the starting point of the analysis because of the following facts: 1) those were the first direct local elections for mayors/municipality heads, and 2) the number of council members was reduced by law, all of which heralded an interesting competition. The high turnover rate of candidates for councillors across different regions of Poland in 2002, 2006, and 2010 local government elections has been attributed in part to the volatility caused by greater media and public interest in council issues. Many see the media as the most effective way to get voters' attention. Voters also treat media information about candidates as a very important source of knowledge about the candidate, which helps them to vote. However, it is important to check: 1) which medium is the most popular and effective source of information for local public debate; 2) what is the quality of information being published before and after the local elections; and 3) if the “politician activity” and “society response” is only clearly visible during the elections time or maybe “local debate” develops after the election time. The chapter is based on the qualitative and quantitative research. Surveys were carried out in 2002, 2006, and 2010.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Bonest Phillips

Abstract Do men and women respond differently to negative political communication? Only a limited collection of studies into the effects of negative campaigns have investigated this research question, and the conflicting results produced from such studies have prevented the development of a widely accepted answer. As campaigns transition to new media environments, further problems arise, as any potential gender gap may be magnified on the new political communication battlefield of social media. The present article contributes to this sparsely investigated area through an empirical study of men's and women's reactions on Facebook to US presidential candidate attacks during two general election campaigns (2012 and 2016) and two primaries (2016 Democratic and Republican). Across nearly 400 million reactions and 40 million unique users, women demonstrate lower receptivity to candidate attacks than men. Two potential explanatory factors for the gap are examined, but neither fully captures the magnitude of the differences observed. Conceptualizing the gender gap composition in terms of differential receptivity most accurately explains these findings and potentially resolves the competing explanations for the gap within the existing literature.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dag I. Jacobsen ◽  
Anne S. Skomedal

How the media cover local election campaigns in Norway has long been a topic of discussion. Is election coverage genuinely local, or do local campaigns tend to be "hijacked" by national politicians? While it is inevitable that national media take a national angle on political journalism, it is interesting to scrutinize how regional and local media cover local election campaigns. If coverage has a national perspective, the electorate may be badly informed about important local political cleavages. This article reports the findings of a content analysis of political articles in two regional newspapers four weeks prior to the 2007 local elections. The main findings are that local politics dominate clearly in frequency and in scope of coverage, although national politics and politicians are clearly present, and local dominance increases as election day approaches. Implications for local democracy are discussed.


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