From Denouncing to Defunding: The Post-Truth Populist Challenge to Public-Service Media

It is now a common place to say that we live times of post-truth and populism. Everything that has happened since that fateful year, 2016—when ‘post-truth’ was named the OED word of the year; when the Brexit referendum, notoriously characterized by lies, mistruths, and disinformation coupled with populist messaging, was held; and when the archetypal populist and liar-in-chief Trump, was elected as US president—suggests a convergence between the politics of populism and the paradigm of post-truth.

Introduction

Newman,

Conrad

2024

(Anti-)Populism and Post-truth

Venizelos

2024

Abstract‘Post-truth populism’ has received a prominent role in public and expert discourse over the past decade, gaining a further boost since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conventional narratives reveal three overarching assumptions about this ‘new political phenomenon’: (a) that it opposes truth, facts and evidence; (b) that it is profoundly emotional rather than rational; and (c) that it constitutes a threat to science. However, such a framing of ‘post-truth populism’ oversimplifies its complex and multifaceted nature. This chapter argues that the discursive construction of ‘post-truth populism’ is facilitated by the automatic adoption of an anti-populist perspective as a default point of departure in any discussion about populism. Despite widespread research on populism and post-truth, scholarly attention remains overly focused on the causes, and the consequences this phenomenon has on polity, policy and politics. As such, the role ‘post-truth populism’ plays as a signifier in public discourse is largely unexplored. Adopting a critical ethos, this chapter shifts the focus towards the language games surrounding it. Stressing the pivotal role of dominant socio-epistemic structures in constructing knowledge and truth as objective, it highlights the role political elites, experts and pundits play in post-truth politics. This chapter concludes that more attention and reflexivity is required when talking about ‘post-truth populism’, in that the wide and uncritical use of the term, and its a priori association with fake news, mis-/dis-information, anti-vax movements and the like, has both theoretical and socio-political implications. First, the elitism apparent in dominant discourse fails to capture why expert authorities are faced with backlash while conspiracies become popular—even against scientific evidence. Secondly, reactionary forms of anti-democratic and illiberal politics are disguised under the notion of ‘populist’ that functions as a euphemism.

Refusing to Be Silenced: Critical Journalism, Populism and the Post-truth Condition

Conrad

2024

A fundamental rejection of mainstream journalism has become a standard feature in the playbook of populist actors. Beyond a potentially legitimate critique of mainstream journalism, populist actors construe mainstream media as part of a corrupt liberal elite that is out of touch with reality as it is experienced by the pure/authentic people. In the literature on post-truth politics, the populist delegitimation of mainstream media has not yet received much attention, in particular as regards the experiences of journalists who are frequently confronted with physical and/or verbal intimidation and/or abuse. This chapter contributes to the literature on post-truth politics by addressing precisely this gap. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with journalists from prominent German TV outlets, the chapter explores journalists’ experiences and analyzes how such experiences contribute to the development of a post-truth political culture. Based on the intimate link between post-truth politics and populism, the chapter argues that the delegitimation of mainstream journalism has created an increasingly hostile climate for journalists that is reflected in an increasing frequency of verbal and physical attacks on journalists. This development has to be understood as part of an effort to silence the voice of critical journalism. Due to the fact that (liberal) democracy requires that citizens have access to reliable sources of information, efforts to silence the voice of critical journalism therefore need to be seen as a crucial step in the creation of—rather than as the symptom of an already existing—post-truth condition.