Political Entertainment In A Post Authoritarian Democracy

The book offers an analytical and empirical account of the specificities of political entertainment in post-authoritarian democracies. Centered around Mexico as a case study, the book explores the production of political entertainment in post-authoritarian legacy media and how political and economic conditions constrain the range and edge of discourse; how political entertainment in social media is shaped by the structure of platforms, as creators are encouraged to conform to specific norms such as constant publication; and the impacts of these media on attitude formation among the population. The book proposes a theoretical framework for identifying the specific conditions of post-authoritarian democracies that constrain the production of political entertainment, as well as its outcomes in terms of content and effects. This framework can be applied to the analysis of similar case studies, particularly in the Global South at large. With an analysis drawing on hard data, historical accounts, and anecdotal evidence, this volume will resonate within academic communities interested in political communication, media studies, transitional democracies, and popular culture.

This volume presents an analytical and empirical overview of the array of issues that the Mexican media faces in the post-authoritarian age, which jointly explains how a partially accomplished democracy, its authoritarian inertias, and its unintended consequences hinder the democratic performance of the media. This is analyzed from three points of view: the stalemate Mexican media system and ineffective regulations, the conditions of risk and insecurity of the journalists on the field, and the limits of freedom of expression, political substance, and inclusiveness of media content. A binational effort, with research from US and Mexican authors, a wide analytic perspective is provided on the macro, meso, and micro levels, allowing for a deep conceptual richness and a comprehensive understanding of the Mexican case. With leading researchers in the field, the volume revolves around the problems of the media in post-authoritarian democracies. By answering the questions of how and why the Mexican media has not fully democratized, the works encompassed here can resonate with and are relevant to other post-authoritarian countries and academic disciplines.

From 1998 to 2005, six elections took place in postcommunist Europe that had the surprising outcome of empowering the opposition and defeating authoritarian incumbents or their designated successors. Valerie J. Bunce and Sharon L. Wolchik compare these unexpected electoral breakthroughs. They draw three conclusions. First, the opposition was victorious because of the hard and creative work of a transnational network composed of local opposition and civil society groups, members of the international democracy assistance community and graduates of successful electoral challenges to authoritarian rule in other countries. Second, the remarkable run of these upset elections reflected the ability of this network to diffuse an ensemble of innovative electoral strategies across state boundaries. Finally, elections can serve as a powerful mechanism for democratic change. This is especially the case when civil society is strong, the transfer of political power is through constitutional means, and opposition leaders win with small mandates.

This collection reaches beyond fake news and propaganda, beyond misinformation and charismatic liars, to explore the lesser-publicized cultural forms and practices that serve as a cultural infrastructure for post-truth society and politics. Situating post-truth in specific contexts as a site of contestation or crisis, the book critically explores it as a dynamic and shifting site around which political and cultural practices in specific contexts revolve and overlap. Through a breadth of perspectives, the volume considers a number of overlapping cultural and political developments across varying national and transnational contexts: changing technologies and practices of cultural production that sometimes shift and at other times reproduce authority of traditional institutional truth-tellers; seismic cultural changes in representations, values and roles regarding gender, sexuality, race and historical memory about them, as well as corresponding reactionary discourses in the “culture wars”; questions of authenticity, honesty, and power relations that combine many of the former shifts within an all-encompassing culture of (self-) promotional, attentional capitalism. These considerations lead scholars to focus on corresponding shifting cultural dynamics of popular truth-telling and (dis-) trust-making that inform political culture. In this more global view, post-truth becomes foremost an influentially anxious public mood about the struggles to secure or undermine publicly accepted facts. This nuanced and insightful collection will interest scholars and students of communication studies, media and cultural studies, media ethics, journalism, media literacy, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and politics.

This book focuses on Australian mainstream media narratives about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from 2013 to 2020. Set against the background of Sino-Australian relations and taking into account the different media systems of China and Australia, this book also critically investigates the Chinese public diplomacy narratives of the BRI. Drawing on my analysis and semi-structured interviews with prominent experts in this area, the book addresses an important but under-explored question: how have Australian mainstream media narratives portrayed the BRI of the Chinese Government from 2013 to 2020? This book fills a gap regarding the portrayal of the BRI in Australian mainstream media and provides new insights into the reasons for narrative shifts in the coverage of the BRI. More concretely, the book finds that the public diplomacy narratives of the BRI were not explained well by Chinese officials, thus allowing Australian journalists and commentators to project their own negative, fearful narratives of China onto the BRI project, particularly from 2017 onwards. More importantly, this book argues that the Australian Federal Government’s policy towards China had a significant impact on the Australian media’s coverage of the BRI; that the media clearly followed the Australian Federal Government’s lead, and not vice versa. Thus, in many ways, Australian mainstream media narratives of the BRI have had a similar outcome as China’s ostensibly much more restrictive and propagandistic state-dominated media system. Noticeably, this book not only has academic significance in the international research community but also holds practical importance in the real world, benefiting Australian business leaders, media professionals, think tank specialists, and policymakers.

Through its global and critical perspectives, this book brings together knowledge, ideas, and tools to understand the problems and identify effective solutions, best practices and alternative approaches to combat xenophobia in the media and build tolerance and social cohesion. Although various studies have been conducted on the extent to which the media construct xenophobic discourse against immigrants and refugees and how they represent immigrants, there exists a research lacuna as to the dynamics of the xenophobia construction in the media, the effect of xenophobic discourse of the media and its function, the nexus between xenophobia construction of the media and the social, economic and political conditions, and the impact of the xenophobic discourse of the media on immigrants and host communities. This book adds knowledge and empirical evidence to fill this research gap. This book will be an important resource for journalists, scholars and students of media and communication studies, journalism, political science, sociology, and anyone covering issues of race and racism, human rights, immigration and refugees.

This edited volume examines the current challenges to media freedom and democratisation in the Middle East. The book revisits the relationship between media consumption and activism in the region, providing thorough analyses on the appropriation of social media for political engagement. Since the outburst and spread of what was known as the ‘Arab Uprisings’ in 2010, the political and media landscapes in the Middle East region have dramatically changed. The initial hope for democratic change and governance quality improvements has faded, as several regimes in the Middle East have strengthened their repressive tactics toward voices deemed critical of governments’ practices, including journalists, bloggers, and activists. The crumbling Arab media scene has also reached an abysmal low, with little to no independence, and public perception of basic freedoms in the region has significantly dropped, as has trust in media and government institutions. This book examines current challenges to media freedom, political participation, and democratisation in the region while reassessing the dynamic relationship between media use and political engagement, amidst a complex political environment accompanied by a rapidly changing digital media landscape. This book’s relevance will appeal to varied audiences, such as scholars and students of journalism, communication, political science, and Middle Eastern studies. It will also prove to be an invaluable resource for organisations dedicated to the research of political communication, media freedom, and use patterns of nontraditional, or new, media.

This book provides a thorough foundation for understanding the shift from political campaigning via legacy news media to campaigning through entertainment media. Public discourse that would once transpire on the newsprint of opinion pages or behind a news anchor’s desk and teleprompter is now happening through talk shows and sitcoms, celebrity partnerships and influencer accounts, memes and streams, video games, branded merchandise, and social media. Here, Turcotte explores how media consumption habits have reshaped contemporary campaign norms and shifted strategies for seeking public office and advancing policy goals. He shows how candidates are incorporating entertainment media in their strategic campaigns, moving beyond satirical programs to demonstrate a multi-pronged approach to campaign communication in the entertainment environment. With a compelling introduction to these campaign shifts and an examination of tangible applications, this text is suitable for scholars as well as students in both political science and mass communication courses, particularly courses in political communication and strategic communication.