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      Communication and democratic erosion: The rise of illiberal public spheres

      1 , 2
      European Journal of Communication
      SAGE Publications

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          Abstract

          In recent years, many once stable democracies have experienced various degrees of disruptive communication, along with the erosion of core institutions such as the press, elections, courts, and the rights of citizens. We propose a framework to compare the logics of illiberal and liberal democratic communication and contrast traditionally dominant communication norms of tolerance, civility, responsiveness, and reasoned resolution of differences in liberal democracies with transgressions of those norms by illiberal rightwing movements, parties, leaders, and voters. We suggest that unlike ‘counter publics’ that seek inclusion in liberal democratic systems, engagement with illiberal communication creates “transgressive publics” that attempt to exclude others in the process of promoting ethnic and religious nationalism. This framework offers a corrective to recent scholarship on democratic public spheres that focuses mainly on why the ideals of more inclusive and egalitarian communication are ever more remote. We shift the focus to the systematic disruptions of mainstream public communication and the authority of public institutions. Our analysis develops a broader theoretical context in which interactions between illiberal leaders and publics occur, with the aim of understanding national variations in how communication systems contribute to democratic erosion.

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          Most cited references63

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          On Democratic Backsliding

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            Network Propaganda

            This book examines the shape, composition, and practices of the United States political media landscape. It explores the roots of the current epistemic crisis in political communication with a focus on the remarkable 2016 U.S. president election culminating in the victory of Donald Trump and the first year of his presidency. The authors present a detailed map of the American political media landscape based on the analysis of millions of stories and social media posts, revealing a highly polarized and asymmetric media ecosystem. Detailed case studies track the emergence and propagation of disinformation in the American public sphere that took advantage of structural weaknesses in the media institutions across the political spectrum. This book describes how the conservative faction led by Steve Bannon and funded by Robert Mercer was able to inject opposition research into the mainstream media agenda that left an unsubstantiated but indelible stain of corruption on the Clinton campaign. The authors also document how Fox News deflects negative coverage of President Trump and has promoted a series of exaggerated and fabricated counter narratives to defend the president against the damaging news coming out of the Mueller investigation. Based on an analysis of the actors that sought to influence political public discourse, this book argues that the current problems of media and democracy are not the result of Russian interference, behavioral microtargeting and algorithms on social media, political clickbait, hackers, sockpuppets, or trolls, but of asymmetric media structures decades in the making. The crisis is political, not technological.
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              Is Open Access

              A third wave of autocratization is here: what is new about it?

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                (View ORCID Profile)
                Journal
                European Journal of Communication
                European Journal of Communication
                SAGE Publications
                0267-3231
                1460-3705
                April 2024
                December 25 2023
                April 2024
                : 39
                : 2
                : 177-196
                Affiliations
                [1 ]University of Washington, Seattle, USA
                [2 ]Dresden University of Technology, Sachsen, Germany
                Article
                10.1177/02673231231217378
                b643281c-fdfd-41a3-8d55-a2d9af270feb
                © 2024

                https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license

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