Lecture 3

Question 1

Media companies as commercial entities

Answer 1

Commercial logic: Need to be competitive

Market for attention, subscriptions, advertisements

Dominant underlying rationale for many news routines, decisions

Social responsibility of journalism

Journalists also act from professional values & principles

Many media organizations have written or unwritten goals beyond profit

Public logic: what should citizens know?

Question 2

1947 Hutchins Committee

Answer 2

The press plays an important role in the development and stability of modern society and, as such, it is imperative that a commitment of social responsibility be imposed on mass media

[which implies] factual accuracy, promotion of open debate, representation of diverse views [..] a watchdog against government abuse

Question 3

Political logic

Answer 3

Political logic poorly conceptualized in mediatization literature

Vote seeking, office seeking, policy seeking

Landerer: Policy dimension vs electoral dimension

Question 4

Normative logic

Answer 4

• idealized view of what should be for the well-being of a democratic society
• imperative of problem-solving
• Value-orientated
• Elitist
• Suplly-driven
• Public Logic
• Policy logic

Question 5

Market logic

Answer 5

• Maximization of self-interested goals
• Imperative of newsworthiness
• Audience-oriented
• Populist
• Demand-driven
• Commercial logic
• Electoral logic - office- seeking actors

Question 6

(Brants et al., 2010, pp. 30–31, quoted in Landerer)

Answer 6

As a consequence [of the commercialization of the media], the selection of news, of what is politically relevant and who is politically important, could well be based more on market considerations, of what sells, than on what is relevant in the public interest.

Under such circumstances, incidents, and the latest polls become more important than substantive coverage of political issues. It strengthens the need for politicians to ‘perform’ in an audience democracy, to be authentic and empathic, populist and entertaining, preferably all together.

Question 7

Populism & the Media

Answer 7

Against Immigrants

Against EU/internationalism

Exploit fear for “the other”
and sense of loss

Speak on behalf of “the people”

Often called “populists”

Question 8

Populism: a brief history

Answer 8

James B. Weaver

US People’s Party

(1892-1908)

Juan & “Evita” Peron

Argentinian Peronismo

(1946-1955)

(Hendrik) “Boer Koekoek”

Boerenpartij (farmers party)

(1963-1981)

Question 9

Right-wing (Neo-)populisme in the Netherlands

Answer 9

Hans Janmaat

Centrum Democrats

1992 – 1998

Pim Fortuyn

Lijst Pim Fortuyn

Killed in 2002

Rita Verdonk

Proud of Netherlands

2007 - 2011

Geert Wilders

Freedom Party

2006 - now

Thierry Baudet

Forum for Democracy

2018 - now

Question 10

WHAT is populism?

Answer 10

For the “people”

Against “the elite”

Neo-populism: against “the other”

Is this a communication style or a political platform?

(Taggart (200) Populism; Mudde (2007) Populist Radical-Right Parties in Europe)

Question 11

POPULISM AS COMMUNICATION STYLE

Answer 11

Features of populist communication

Simplistic

Simple solutions

No nuance/compromise

Extremist

Always go a little bit further

Opportunistic

Take any ‘hot’ issue position

Relate to people vs elite (vs other)

(Aalberg et al., 2016, Populist political communication in Europe)

Question 12

(NEO-) POPULISM AS A SUBSTANTIVE THEORY

Is it all just a rhetorical trick?

What is the position of populists in the political landscape?

What is a “political landscape”?

Answer 12

Political landscape:

• Parties compete on various issues
• Most salient dimension: left vs right

Question 13

CLEAVAGES AND DIMENSIONS

Answer 13

Cleavage:
A societal division mobilized as a political conflict
originating from a historical clash

Parties compete on dimensions
shaped by cleavages

Question 14

SUBSTANTIVE GROUND FOR POPULIST POLITICS: Why do people vote for Trump/Wilders/Brexit/…?

Answer 14

Real fear of losing out from globalization

2008 crisis: job losses

2015 refugee crisis: more migrants

COVID?

Existing political parties don’t address the issues

Because they are split themselves

Leaving room for new parties

Causing:

Legitimacy crisis

Fragmentation of politics (NL)

Splits within parties (Trump, brexit)

Question 15

Media and populism

Answer 15

“Elective Affinity” between 21st C. media and populist resurgence

Populism through the media:
Journalists give platform to populists

–> High news value of populist statements

Populism by the media:
journalists make anti-elite statements

–> Journalist functions as watchdog

–> Critical attitude can turn into cynical across the board negativity

Question 16

THE HYBRID MEDIA SYSTEM

Answer 16

Hybridization of ‘old’ (institutionalized, broadcast) & ‘new’/social media (decentralized, networked)

Increased volatility, different rules for attention
(cf. 1st principle)

Increased focus on attention income
(cf. Landerer, rethinking the logics), focus on quantity over quality of coverage (cf. front/back door, but is that actually true?)

Question 17

STUDYING THE 2016 ELECTION

Answer 17

Timeline of stories about candidates:

Mainstream and partisan media

Tweets and retweets

Events (staged/unstaged, media/politics)

Nationwide popularity

Research Questions:

RQ1: Differences between media in attention for candidates

RQ2: Responsiveness of media to tweets/events

Conclusions:
Trump consciously and successfully uses social media to sustain attention in traditional media (→another “side door”?)

Media react uniformly to tweets (→populism through the media?),
possibly driven by audience demand (→commercial logic?)

Sanders never managed to play this game as well as Trump did
(→more about hybrid media than about populism?)