Abstract
The recent upsurge of populism brought significant challenges to the societal role of journalism in democracy. Anti-mainstream media is a distinctive facet of far-right populism who regularly accuse it of displaying a “sacerdotal” attitude towards the status quo. Consequently, strategic offline and online attacks aim at flouting any negative image propagated by the press and shore up support among like-minded. Ultimately, they respond to the interests of populists to delegitimize and deactivate the performance of the critical function of the press by promoting self-censorship and silencing it. This study explores cross-national anti-press attacks in two pluralists polarized Latin American countries with contrasting democratic maturity, levels of press freedom, and life phases of the populist parties or actors (“ground-laying” versus “established”.) The case study analysis comprising over 50 episodes of digital attacks against the press over eight months, coinciding with the most dangerous year for professional journalism in recent Portuguese and Brazilian history, is further complemented with reconstruction biographies of the press assaults and background interviews. It extends the validity of the life cycle model to unpack populist attacks against the press.
Presenters
Novais RuiResearcher and Auxiliary Invited Professor, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Portugal
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Anti-press attacks, Populism, Portugal and Brazil, Life cycle model, Multi-method
