Examining the Construction of “Liberal Media”: a study of the anti-media populist discourse of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico
(2024) MKVM13 20241Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
- Abstract
- This thesis explores the anti-media populist discourse of the current Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, with which he harshly targets Slovak mainstream media to delegitimize them and their critical reporting. This practice, which Fico has been engaging in for many years, was originally considered problematic mainly due to its potentially detrimental consequences for trust in the media among many Slovaks, and for their status as epistemic authorities in the media landscape. However, in early 2024, when Fico’s government started taking legislative steps towards getting public service broadcasting under state control, the true gravity of the problem became evident.
Building on post-structuralist assumptions, this study aims to examine... (More) - This thesis explores the anti-media populist discourse of the current Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, with which he harshly targets Slovak mainstream media to delegitimize them and their critical reporting. This practice, which Fico has been engaging in for many years, was originally considered problematic mainly due to its potentially detrimental consequences for trust in the media among many Slovaks, and for their status as epistemic authorities in the media landscape. However, in early 2024, when Fico’s government started taking legislative steps towards getting public service broadcasting under state control, the true gravity of the problem became evident.
Building on post-structuralist assumptions, this study aims to examine Fico’s discursive constructions of the mainstream media to understand what meanings are associated with these important institutions and, therefore, what social reality is constructed for Fico’s audiences through his strategic use of language. It also sets out to understand how this discourse is linked to the current ideological and power struggles in the country, i.e., what strategic purposes the discourse may serve. Relevant textual and video materials published between the years 2021-2024 on Fico’s Facebook page were analyzed using Ruth Wodak’s approach to Critical Discourse Analysis. Given Fico’s style of politics and communication, this thesis is anchored in the theoretical frame of populism, with a specific focus on anti-media populism.
The findings show a salient interconnectedness between anti-media and anti-liberal statements in Fico’s discourse. Fico not only constructs the mainstream news media as “liberal media”, but following the populist logic, also engages in “Othering” of liberal and progressive subjects, including the “liberal media”, constructing them as a threat to Slovakia and its people. Moreover, over the years, Fico has developed a narrative whereby the media are a powerful actor in covert power games of the West, and has created a representation of them as hateful, violence-inciting, and working against Slovakia and Slovaks. Besides the contents of the discourse, the analysis also tries to understand how Fico achieves his constructions through the focus on discursive strategies. My research ultimately suggests that long-term, persistent discursive practices such as these, may have led to a creation of an environment in which media repression was easier for Fico’s government to implement. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9171980
- author
- Kozánková, Barbora LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MKVM13 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- anti-media populism, critical discourse analysis, media freedom, illiberalization, mainstream media, populism
- language
- English
- id
- 9171980
- date added to LUP
- 2024-09-30 08:46:46
- date last changed
- 2024-09-30 08:46:46
@misc{9171980,
abstract = {{This thesis explores the anti-media populist discourse of the current Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, with which he harshly targets Slovak mainstream media to delegitimize them and their critical reporting. This practice, which Fico has been engaging in for many years, was originally considered problematic mainly due to its potentially detrimental consequences for trust in the media among many Slovaks, and for their status as epistemic authorities in the media landscape. However, in early 2024, when Fico’s government started taking legislative steps towards getting public service broadcasting under state control, the true gravity of the problem became evident.
Building on post-structuralist assumptions, this study aims to examine Fico’s discursive constructions of the mainstream media to understand what meanings are associated with these important institutions and, therefore, what social reality is constructed for Fico’s audiences through his strategic use of language. It also sets out to understand how this discourse is linked to the current ideological and power struggles in the country, i.e., what strategic purposes the discourse may serve. Relevant textual and video materials published between the years 2021-2024 on Fico’s Facebook page were analyzed using Ruth Wodak’s approach to Critical Discourse Analysis. Given Fico’s style of politics and communication, this thesis is anchored in the theoretical frame of populism, with a specific focus on anti-media populism.
The findings show a salient interconnectedness between anti-media and anti-liberal statements in Fico’s discourse. Fico not only constructs the mainstream news media as “liberal media”, but following the populist logic, also engages in “Othering” of liberal and progressive subjects, including the “liberal media”, constructing them as a threat to Slovakia and its people. Moreover, over the years, Fico has developed a narrative whereby the media are a powerful actor in covert power games of the West, and has created a representation of them as hateful, violence-inciting, and working against Slovakia and Slovaks. Besides the contents of the discourse, the analysis also tries to understand how Fico achieves his constructions through the focus on discursive strategies. My research ultimately suggests that long-term, persistent discursive practices such as these, may have led to a creation of an environment in which media repression was easier for Fico’s government to implement.}},
author = {{Kozánková, Barbora}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Examining the Construction of “Liberal Media”: a study of the anti-media populist discourse of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico}},
year = {{2024}},
}