Populism och journalistik - stadigt sallskap eller tillfallig bekantskap?

In: Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift, Band 112, Heft 3, S. 271-287

Abstract

The purpose is to discuss the relationship between populism & journalism at three different levels: populism as an invective, populism as news criteria & populism as news ideology. Sometimes populism is used pejoratively by scholars in fine with its general use in the media as synonym of opportunism, demagogy & overzealous search for popularity. Sometimes populism in the media is mainly linked to the newsworthiness of charismatic political leaders & their rhetoric. Sometimes scholars see an ideological kinship between populism & the journalistic ideology manifesting itself in the so-called media logic. Mazzoleni calls this media populism. The main limitation of the media populism approach is its normative starting point. This also ignores the fact that both populism & media logic are part of different media-political systems with different characteristics depending on the political, economical, cultural & historical background. A historical-political approach to the relation between populism & journalism in different media systems, as defined by Hallin & Mancini seems to be more fruitful. Adapted from the source document.