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Journalism and the Media (J&M) Summary ALL ARTICLES
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Journalism and the MediaWeek 1
1. Populist disruption and the fourth age of political communication (Sorensen,
2024)
discusses the transformation of political communication in the digital age, focusing on how
modern populism exploits this environment.
1. Introduction and Argument
• Sorensen emphasizes understanding populism as a communicative process contextualized
within the digital age of political communication, referred to as the "fourth age."
• The study examines how populist practices undermine traditional political communication by
exploiting digital media's grassroots and participatory nature.
• Key aspects include populism's pragmatics (disruptive symbolic actions), ontology
(emphasizing directness), and epistemology (authenticity over expertise).
2. Ages of Political Communication
• First Age (Post-WWII): Strong, stable political institutions dominated communication.
• Third Age (1990s): Characterized by media abundance, competitive pressures, and
professionalized political advocacy.
• Fourth Age (Digital Age):
◦ Marked by complexity, hybridity, and interconnectedness via digital media.
◦ Citizens experience "lopsided e cacy," feeling e ective in grassroots
communication but disconnected from institutional politics.
3. Populist Communication
• Modern populists highlight the disconnection between elite institutions and citizens.
• They capitalize on citizens' desire for authenticity, bypassing institutional norms through
grassroots platforms like social media.
• Populism rede nes political legitimacy by prioritizing directness and symbolic acts over
traditional mediated communication.
4. Populist Pragmatics
• Populist leaders use disruptive symbolic actions, such as public de ance of institutional
norms, to communicate their outsider status.
• These actions frame populists as authentic representatives of "the people."
• Disruption extends to forms of speech and behavior perceived as transgressive, such as
hate speech framed as a critique of "politically correct" norms.
5. Populist Ontology
• Populism questions the authenticity of elite political communication, portraying it as a
facade.
• Leaders position themselves as embodiments of "the people," claiming to represent
grassroots experiences directly.
• Examples include Boris Johnson's "bu oonery" to highlight the cultural disconnection of
elites.
6. Populist Epistemology
• Populism rejects institutional expertise and promotes authenticity as the core of political
knowledge.
• Leaders like Donald Trump delegitimize traditional media and claim social media as a more
"truthful" platform.
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, • Authenticity is performed through emotional appeals and shared experiences, resonating
with citizens' distrust of elite narratives.
7. Implications for Democracy
• Positives:
◦ Populism exposes weaknesses in institutional politics, such as the lack of genuine
representation and dialogue.
◦ It revitalizes democratic communication by emphasizing grassroots participation.
• Negatives:
◦ Populism deepens distrust in institutions without o ering substantive solutions.
◦ The emphasis on authenticity can trivialize factual accuracy and expertise.
8. Conclusion
• Populism's disruptive approach re ects and exacerbates the challenges of the fourth age of
political communication.
• While it highlights institutional de ciencies, its reliance on symbolic rather than substantive
changes often fails to deliver the desired directness and accountability.
This analysis links modern populism's appeal to the evolving media ecology and citizen
engagement, challenging traditional paradigms of political communication while proposing
potential avenues for improvement.
De nitions
Populism: A communicative process that constructs "the people" as a uni ed moral entity
juxtaposed against an elite that is portrayed as corrupt or disconnected from the public.
Core Features:
• The People: Represented as a deserving, silent majority with common sense and a shared
identity.
• The Elite: Framed as actively working against "the people," threatening their values and way
of life.
• Crisis: Populism often arises in a perceived crisis, using this narrative to legitimize disruption.
• Disruption: Challenges institutional norms through symbolic actions and grassroots
communication.
Populist Ontology: The worldview underpinning
populism, focusing on the nature of political reality and
representation.
• Directness, embodiment and delegitimization of
Elites
• Example: Boris Johnson's "bu oonery" highlights
his claim to be an ordinary person, in contrast to the
detached and elitist establishment.
Populist Epistemology: perspective on what counts as
legitimate knowledge in politics, prioritizing authenticity
over expertise.
• Authenticity as Knowledge, Rejection of Institutions
and Emotional Truths
• Example: Donald Trump's labeling of mainstream
media as "fake news" delegitimizes traditional media
and positions his tweets as more authentic and
truthful.
Grassroots Communication: Citizen-driven, non-institutional forms of political communication,
often facilitated by digital media.
Populist Use:
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, • Frames itself as more direct and truthful than institutional communication.
• Leverages social media's perceived immediacy and participatory nature to bypass traditional
media gatekeepers
Lopsided E cacy: A phenomenon in the fourth age of political communication where citizens
feel empowered in grassroots spaces but powerless in institutional political processes.
2. Political Communication in a High-Choice Media Environment: A Challenge for
Democracy? (Van Aelst et al., 2017)
examines how transformations in media environments, particularly the rise of digital and social
media, are a ecting political communication and democracy.
1. Introduction
• The transition to a high-choice media environment has reshaped political communication.
• Key focus: The article evaluates changes in political information environments and their
impact on democratic processes in postindustrial democracies.
• Central concerns include the supply and demand for political news and how these changes
a ect citizens’ political knowledge and engagement.
2. Political Information Environment
• De ned as the combination of the supply and demand of political news and information
within a society.
◦ Supply Side: Quantity, quality, and diversity of political news.
◦ Demand Side: How citizens consume and engage with this information.
• Changes in media systems have created challenges, such as:
◦ Declining use of traditional media like newspapers.
◦ A shift towards digital and social media consumption, where incidental exposure to
political news is less common.
3. Six Democratic Concerns
The authors identify six major concerns tied to changes in political information environments:
Concern 1: Declining Amount of Political News
• While the absolute amount of political news has increased due to digital platforms, its
relative share in the media environment has decreased.
• Citizens have more opportunities to avoid political content, leading to increased numbers of
“news-avoiders.”
Concern 2: Declining Quality of News
• Economic pressures and audience demands push media outlets to prioritize soft news,
sensationalism, and entertainment over substantive reporting.
• This trend undermines the ability of news to inform citizens adequately.
Concern 3: Media Concentration and Decreasing Diversity
• Ownership concentration in media markets reduces the diversity of perspectives available to
citizens.
• Online media, despite o ering more outlets, often replicates the content of traditional media,
limiting content diversity.
Concern 4: Fragmentation and Polarization
• Increased media choices allow individuals to consume news aligned with their political
beliefs, fostering echo chambers and lter bubbles.
• This contributes to a polarized public sphere and weakens social cohesion.
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, Concern 5: Increasing Relativism
• The rise of misinformation and "truthiness" (accepting something as true because it feels
right) challenges the role of facts in public discourse.
• Relativism erodes shared realities, making consensus and democratic decision-making more
di cult.
Concern 6: Inequalities in Political Knowledge
• High-choice environments amplify gaps between those who consume political news and
those who avoid it.
• These inequalities in news consumption lead to disparities in political knowledge and civic
engagement.
4. Democratic Implications
• The high-choice media environment exacerbates inequalities in political knowledge and
engagement, with politically interested individuals bene ting the most.
• Relativism and polarization undermine trust in democratic institutions and the possibility of
shared dialogue.
• Despite these challenges, the authors acknowledge the potential of digital platforms to
enhance participation if used e ectively.
5. Conclusion and Future Directions
• The authors emphasize the need for:
◦ Media policies that promote diversity and quality in news.
◦ Public awareness campaigns to encourage balanced media consumption.
◦ Further research into how di erent media systems a ect democratic outcomes.
De nitions
Political Information Environment: The interplay of the supply and demand for political news
and information in a society.
• Supply Side: The quantity, quality, and diversity of political news made available by media
outlets.
• Demand Side: The public’s consumption patterns, preferences, and ability to engage with
political news.
High-Choice Media Environment: A media landscape characterized by an abundance of
platforms and content, where individuals have signi cant freedom to choose what they consume.
• Avoidance of political news and more selective exposure
Political knowledge: Citizens' understanding of political issues, actors, and systems necessary
for meaningful participation in democracy.
Media fragmentation: The division of audiences across numerous media platforms and outlets,
resulting in smaller, more segmented audience groups.
Relativism: A growing trend where facts are seen as subjective or a matter of opinion, eroding
trust in evidence-based discourse.
3. Journalism Studies Still Needs to Fix Western Bias (Hanitzsch, 2019)
critiques the Western-centric perspective in journalism studies and argues for a more inclusive,
global approach to the eld.
1. Introduction
• Hanitzsch acknowledges that complete neutrality in journalism studies is impossible due to
inherent ethnocentric biases.
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