Journalism and Populism
The Attitudes Editors-in-chief Have Towards Populist Rhetoric Vary Depending on the Audience Structure of the Publications They Oversee
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51480/1899-5101.17.4(38).683Keywords:
populism, journalism, editors-in-chief, regional press, local pressAbstract
Populism is defined by its perception and is used by discussants in political debates, and by commentators and academic observers when they intend to unmask or disqualify certain propositions, political attitudes, campaign platforms or manifestos of political parties. Although Lithuania’s media elites’ perceptions of populism matter because their filtering of contents impacts on public opinion, research has not investigated the topic. This study is based on the findings of a questionnaire and a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews with selected Lithuanian media elites. The study reveals a pronounced divergence from the negative views of populism of large urban and regional newspapers, to the ambivalent views of local newspapers. The study speculates the use of contrasting reader-feedback mechanisms may be the cause of the divide. The study places the findings within the broader context of information methodology practices in the press in both Lithuania and other countries.
References
Akkerman, T., de Lange, S., & Rooduijn, M. (2016). Radical Rightwing Populist Parties in Western Europe: Into the Mainstream. London: Routledge.
Aldridge, M. (2003). The Ties that Divide: Regional Press Campaigns, Community and Populism. Media, Culture & Society, 25(4), 491–509.
Andersson, U. & Wiik, J. (2013). Journalism Meets Management. Journalism Practice, 7(6), 705–719.
Bajomi‑Lázár, P. & Horváth, K. (2023). Two Journalistic Cultures in One Country. The Case of Hungary in the Light of Journalists’ Discourses on Fake News. Journalism Practice. DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2023.2223173. 1–19.
Balcytiene, A. (2012). Culture as a Guide in Theoretical Explorations of Baltic Media. In D. C. Hallin, & P. Mancini (Eds.). Comparing media systems beyond the Western world (pp. 51–71). Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press.
Benveniste, A., Campani, G. & Lazaridis, G. (2016). Introduction. In Lazaridis, G., Campani, G., & Benveniste, A. (Eds.). The Rise of the Far Right in Europe. London etc.: Palgrave Macmillan.
Blassnig, S., Ernst, N., Büchel, F., Engesser, S., & Esser, F. (2019). Populism in Online Election Coverage. Journalism Studies, 20(8), 1110–1129.
Cammaerts, B. (2018). The Mainstreaming of Extreme Right‑Wing Populism in the Low Countries: What is to be Done? Communication, Culture and Critique, 11(1), 7–20.
de Jonge, L. (2019). The Populist Radical Right and the Media in the Benelux: Friend or Foe? The International Journal of Press/Politics, 24(2), 189–209.
de Jonge, L. (2021). The Curious Case of Belgium: Why is There no Right‑Wing Populism in Wallonia? Government and Opposition, 56(4), 598–614.
de Jonge, L. & Gaufman, E. (2022). The normalisation of the far right in the Dutch media in the run-up to the 2021 general elections. Discourse & Society, 33(6), 773–787.
de Vreese, C. H., Esser, F., Aalberg, T., Reinemann, C., & Stanyer, J. (2018). Populism as an Expression of Political Communication Content and Style: A New Perspective. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 23(4), 423–438.
Ekström, M. & Patrona, M. & Thornborrow, J. (2020). The normalization of the populist radical right in news interviews: a study of journalistic reporting on the Swedish democrats. Social Semiotics, 30(4), 466–484.
Farkas, J. (2023). Fake News in Metajournalistic Discourse. Journalism Studies, 24(4), 423–441.
Fawzi, N. & Krämer, B. (2021). The Media as Part of a Detached Elite? Exploring Antimedia Populism Among Citizens and Its Relation to Political Populism. International Journal of Communication, 15, 3292–3314.
Gagnon, J., Beausoleil, E., Son, K., Arguelles, C., Chalaye, P., & Johnston, C. N. (2018). What is populism? Who is the populist?: A state of the field review (2008–2018). Democratic Theory, 5(2), vi–xxvi.
Groenhart, H. P. & Bardoel, J. L. H. (2012). Conceiving the transparency of journalism: Moving towards a new media accountability currency. Studies in Communication Sciences, 12(1), 6–11.
Hunger, S. & Paxton, F. (2022). What’s in a buzzword? A systematic review of the state of populism research in political science. Political Science Research and Methods, 10(3), 617–633.
Ihlebæk, K. A. & Larsson, A. O. (2018). Learning by Doing. Journalism Studies, 19(6), 905–920.
Keliuotis, J. (2000 [1942]). Žurnalistikos paskaitos [Lectures in Journalism]. Kaunas: Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto leidykla.
Kevisas, M. T., Brazauskas, A., Nedzveckiene, V., & Mystautaite, M. (2020). Lietuvos regionų periodikos redaktorių požiūris į valstybinės paramos skirstymo žiniasklaidai principus [The Attitude of the Regional Editors of Lithuanian Periodicals to the Principles of Distribution of State Support for the Media]. Žurnalistikos tyrimai, 14, 39–64.
Kitzberger, P. (2023) Media‑Politics Parallelism and Populism/Anti-populism Divides in Latin America: Evidence from Argentina. Political Communication, 40(1), 69–91.
Krämer, B. & Langmann, K. (2020). Professionalism as a Response to Right‑Wing Populism? An Analysis of a Metajournalistic Discourse. International Journal of Communication, 14, 5643–5662.
Krzyżanowski, M. & Ekström, M. (2022). The normalization of far-right populism and nativist authoritarianism: discursive practices in media, journalism and the wider public sphere/s. Discourse & Society, 33(6), 719–729.
Matonyte, I. (2008). (Liberal) mass media and the (multi)party system in postcommunist Lithuania. Central European Journal of Communication, 1(1), 123–144.
Matonyte, I. (2009). From liberal to predatory mass media in post-communist Lithuania. Zurnalistikos tyrimai, 2, 159–179.
Moore, R. (2021) January 6 and the challenge to American television journalism. In J. Mair, T. Clark, T. Fowler, T. Snoddy, & R. Tait (Eds.). Populism, the Pandemic and the Media Journalism in the age of Covid, Trump, Brexit and Johnson (pp. 10–17). London: Routledge.
Mudde, C. (2004). The populist zeitgeist. Government and Opposition, 39, 541–563.
Mudde, C. & Rovira Kaltwasser, C. (2013). Populism. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies (pp. 1–23). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Müller, H. (2017). Populism, de-globalisation, and media competition: The spiral of noise. Central European Journal of Communication, vol. 10, 1(18), 64–78.
Müller, H. (2023). Challenging Economic Journalism. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Niggermeier, J. & Skóra, M. (2018). The German Media’s Response to Populism. In S. Gaston & P. Harrison‑Evans (Eds.). Mediating Populism (pp. 48–72). London: Demos.
Novais, R. A. (2022). On the firing line: adversariness in the Portuguese investigative reporting of far-right populism. Media & Jornalismo, 22(40), 301–318.
Oja, S. & Mral, B. (2013). The Sweden Democrats Came In from the Cold: How the Debate about Allowing the SD into Media Arenas Shifted between 2002 and 2010. In R. Wodak, M. Khosravinik, & B. Mral (Eds.). Right‑Wing Populism in Europe (pp. 277–292). London etc.: Bloomsbury.
Panievsky, A. (2022). The Strategic Bias: How Journalists Respond to Antimedia Populism. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 27(4), 808–826.
Papastephanou, M. (2023). Curiosity and Democracy: A Neglected Connection. Philosophies 8(4), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8040059
Ritter, Z. Standridge, P. (2019). Interaction With Local Media Tied to Trust in Local News. Gallup News Service. Online: https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/266675/interaction-local-media-tied-trust-local-news.aspx
The Economist (2013). Bye-bye, Bloomberg. The Economist. Online: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2013/11/02/bye-bye-bloomberg
Schafraad, P., d’Haenens, L., Scheepers, P., & Wester, F. (2012). The evolution of a media image: Newspaper attention to the Flemish far right 1987–2004. Acta Politica, 47, 356–377.
Schmidt, H. (2023). Pandemics and Politics: Analyzing the politicization and polarization of pandemic-related reporting. Newspaper Research Journal, 44(1), 26–52.
Silva dos Santos, C. V. & Santos de Miranda, J. M. (2022). News media and populism: a systematic literature review. Media & Jornalismo, 22(40), 37–56.
Steensen, S., Figenschou, T. U., & Ihlebæk, K. A. (2023). Playing the Mainstream Game. A Language‑Game Analysis of “Mainstream” as a Possible Boundary Object in Journalism Studies. Digital Journalism, 11(4), 653–671.
Thornborrow, J., Ekström, M., & Patrona, M. (2021a). Discursive constructions of populism in opinion-based journalism: A comparative European study. Discourse, Context & Media, 44, 100542. 1–9.
Thornborrow, J., Ekström, M., & Patrona, M. (2021b). Question design and the construction of populist stances in political news interviews. Discourse & Communication, 15(6), 672–689.
Vaisnys, A. & Kevisas, M. T. (2024). Zaufanie do mediów informacyjnych: naiwne postrzeganie przyczyn zdominowane przez … . Rocznik Historii Prasy Polskiej, 27(2), 143–162.
von Krogh, T. & Nord, L. W. (2010). Between Public Responsibility and Public Relations: A Case Study of Editors’ Attitudes Toward Media Accountability in Sweden. Communication, Culture and Critique, 3(2), 190–206.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Polish Communication Association
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
