Populist Media Policies and Their Consequences for Open Societies

n IAMCR pre-conference event

Description: It is an undeniable fact that the world is changing, also politically speaking. All over the world new political parties of far-right and far-left political tendencies have come to stay in many societies historically known for their socialist governments in the past. Even in some core countries of the European Union, such as France or Italy, far-right political parties either are already in power or have grown in size and number of voters – thus becoming more important in the political scene. The reasons for this growth may vary in each country, but they are often associated with an increase of both legal and illegal immigration while, simultaneously, welfare systems in these countries tend to decrease and provide less benefits for the citizens. In many cases these developments affect public trust in established political actors and institutions negatively. The rapidly changing political landscape potentially influences existing media-politics relations and, more generally, fundamental conditions for open societies. Media policies are no longer only related to left-right wing positions, but also related to traditional elites versus populist perspectives. What are the media policies and strategies expressed by recently-elected far-right populist parties? To what extent have they been influential and how can these new tendencies be measured?

In this conference we will analyze contemporary media policy developments in different contexts and countries in order to arrive to relevant findings that allow us to ‘measure’ the different influences of far-right and far-left populist parties’ strategies and effects. Also, we will try to define the democratic consequences that populist media policies entail, if any.

This pre-conference is organized with the support of the Official Research Group "Nordic Model and Culture of the Information Society" (Research Group Nº 962068) of Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

We invite academic colleagues, researchers, journalists and political experts to submit abstracts to this IAMCR 2019 International Communication Section pre-conference.

Location: Conference Room, New Building at the Faculty of Information Sciences, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Date and time: Friday 5 July 2019, 9:30 to 18:00.

Participation and registration: Participation in this pre-conference is free of charge. Registration is required.

Call for proposals: Abstracts (300-500 words) should be submitted for blind review before Monday, 3 June to iamcr2019.popmediapreconf [at] gmail.com. Authors will be notified on Monday, 10 June.

Download the call for proposals [English] [Spanish[French]

Download the event's Programme

The language of this pre-conference is English, only.

Organisers

  • Prof. Dr. Karen Arriaza Ibarra, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, is Chair of the International Communication Section of IAMCR. She participates actively in international conferences and seminars and is the author of articles and books on international communication, political communication, media structure, and cultural industries. 
    Email: arriazaibarra [at] ccinf.ucm.es

  • Prof. Dr. Lars Nord, Mid-Sweden University, is the Head of the Department of Political Communication at Mid-Sweden University, Sundsvall Campus, and also the Director of the DEMICOM Institute. His profile can be seen in this link.
    Email: lars.nord [at] miun.se

Event's email: iamcr2019.popmediapreconf [at] gmail.com

Sponsors