Article published in:
Discourses of Fake News
Edited by Scott Wright
[Journal of Language and Politics 20:5] 2021
► pp. 653–675

Delegitimizing the media?

Analyzing politicians’ media criticism on social media

| University of Vienna
| Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
| University of Vienna
A growing literature on the impact of “fake news“ accusations on legacy news outlets suggests that the use of this term is part of a much larger trend of increased and delegitimizing media criticism by political actors. However, so far, there is very little empirical evidence on how prevailing politicians’ delegitimizing media criticism really is and under which conditions it occurs. To fill these gaps, we present results of a content analysis of media-related Facebook postings by Austrian and German politicians in 2017 (N = 2,921). The results suggest that media criticism, in general, is actually rare and that about half of it can be described as delegitimizing (i.e., characterized by incivility or absence of argumentation). Most often, media criticism is used by populist politicians, who accuse “the media” in general of bias and falsehoods.
Keywords: media criticism, delegitimization, social media, content analysis, populist communication, fake news
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Media criticism in a digital age: From “good” to “bad”?
  • 3.Characteristics of delegitimizing media criticism
    • 3.1Absence of reasoning
    • 3.2Presence of incivility
  • 4.The importance of the “fake news” label
  • 5.Determinants of delegitimizing media criticism
    • 5.1Political actors: Populist politicians and parties
    • 5.2Journalistic actors: Generalization of addressee
    • 5.3Time period: Election campaigns
  • 6.Methods
    • 6.1Case selection
    • 6.2Sample
    • 6.3Coding procedure
    • 6.4Measures
    • 6.5Intercoder reliability
  • 7.Results
    • 7.1Descriptive results
    • 7.2Delegitimizing media criticism
    • 7.3Determinants of delegitimizing media criticism
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 June 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20081.ege
References
Aalberg, Toril, Frank Esser, Carsten Reinemann, Jesper Strömbäck, and Claes De Vreese
(eds) 2016 Populist political communication in Europe. Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Aaldering, Loes, and Rens Vliegenthart
2016 “Political leaders and the media. Can we measure political leadership images in newspapers using computer-assisted content analysis?”. Quality & Quantity 50, no. 5: 1871–1905. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Althaus, Scott L.
2012 “What’s good and bad in political communication research? Normative standards for evaluating media and citizen performance.” In The SAGE handbook of political communication, ed. by Holli A. Semetko, and Margaret Scammell, 97–112, London: SAGE Publications. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bakker, Ryan, Liesbet Hooghe, Seth Jolly, Gary Marks, Jonathan Polk, Jan Rovny, Marco Steenbergen, and Milada Vachudova
2020 “2019 Chapel Hill Expert Survey”. Available on chesdata.eu. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Bickford, Susan
2011 “Emotion talk and political judgment.” The Journal of Politics 73, no. 4: 1025–1037. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Carey, James W.
1974 “Journalism and criticism: The case of an undeveloped profession.” The Review of Politics 36, no. 2: 227–249. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, Matt
2009 “Media criticism as competitive discourse: Defining reportage of the Abu Ghraib scandal.” Journal of Communication Inquiry 33, 3: 258–277. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2016 “Embedded Links, Embedded Meanings: Social media commentary and news sharing as mundane media criticism.” Journalism Studies 17, no. 7: 915–924. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2017 Journalistic authority: Legitimating news in the digital era. Columbia University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cheruiyot, David
2018 “Popular Criticism That Matters: Journalists’ perspectives of ‘quality’ media critique.” Journalism Practice 12, no. 8: 1008–1018. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cheruiyot, D.
2019 Criticising Journalism: Popular Media Criticism in the Digital Age (Doctoral dissertation, Karlstads universitet).Google Scholar
Coe, Kevin, Kate Kenski, and Stephen A. Rains
2014 “Online and uncivil? Patterns and determinants of incivility in newspaper website comments.” Journal of Communication 64, no. 4: 658–679. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dahlgren, Peter
2005 “The Internet, public spheres, and political communication: Dispersion and deliberation.” Political Communication 22, no. 2: 147–162. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Denner, Nora, and Christina Peter
2017 „Der Begriff Lügenpresse in deutschen Tageszeitungen.“ [The term lying press in German newspapers]. Publizistik 62, no. 3: 273–297. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Die Presse
(2017, July 3). “Pröll-Privatstiftung: Zivilprozess um ‘Fake News’-Vorwurf” [Pröll Private Foundation: Civil Suit Over ‘fake News’ Accusation]. https://​www​.diepresse​.com​/5245707​/proll​-privatstiftung​-zivilprozess​-um​-fake​-news​-vorwurf​?direct​=5252669%26​_vl​_backlink%3D%2Fhome%2Finnenpolitik%2F5252669%2Findex​.do%26selChannel%3D
Farkas, Johan, and Jannick Schou
2018 “Fake news as a floating signifier: Hegemony, antagonism and the politics of falsehood. “Javnost-The Public 25, no. 3: 298–314. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Eberl, Jakob-Moritz, Hajo Boomgaarden, and Markus Wagner
2017 “One bias fits all? Three types of media bias and their effects on party preferences.” Communication Research 44, no. 8: 1125–1148. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Egelhofer, Jana Laura, Loes Aaldering, Jakob-Moritz Eberl, Sebastian Galyga, and Sophie Lecheler
2020 “From novelty to normalization? How journalists use the term ‘fake news’ in their reporting.” Journalism Studies 21, no. 10, 1323–1343. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Egelhofer, Jana Laura and Sophie Lecheler
2019 “Fake news as a two-dimensional phenomenon: a framework and research agenda.” Annals of the International Communication Association 43, no. 2: 97–116. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Engesser, Sven, Nicole Ernst, Frank Esser and Florin Büchel
2016 “Populism and social media: How politicians spread a fragmented ideology.” Information, Communication & Society 20, no. 8: 1109–1126. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ernst, Nicole, Sven Engesser, Florin Büchel, Sina Blassnig, and Frank Esser
2017 “Extreme parties and populism: an analysis of Facebook and Twitter across six countries.” Information, Communication & Society 20, no. 9: 1347–1364. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Farhall, Kate, Andrea Carson, Scott Wright, Andrew Gibbons, and William Lukamto
2019 “Political Elites’ Use of Fake News Discourse Across Communications Platforms.” International Journal of Communication 131 (2019): 4353–4375.Google Scholar
Fawzi, Nayla
2019 “Untrustworthy news and the media as ‘enemy of the people?’ How a populist worldview shapes recipients’ attitudes toward the media.” The International Journal of Press/Politics 24, no. 2: 146–164. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2020 “Right-Wing Populist Media Criticism.” In Perspectives on Populism and the Media, ed. by Benjamin Krämer and Christina Holtz-Bacha, 39–56. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Figenschou, Tine Ustad and Karoline Andrea Ihlebæk
2019 “Challenging Journalistic Authority: Media criticism in far-right alternative media.” Journalism Studies 20, no. 9: 1221–1237. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Friess, Dennis, and Christiane Eilders
2015 “A systematic review of online deliberation research.” Policy & Internet 7, no. 3: 319–339. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Guess, Andrew, Brendan Nyhan, and Jason Reifler
2017 “’You’re fake news!’ The 2017 Poynter media trust survey.” Retrieved from https://​poyntercdn​.blob​.core​.windows​.net​/files​/PoynterMediaTrustSurvey2017​.pdf
Gründl, Johann
2020 “Populist ideas on social media: A dictionary-based measurement of populist communication.” New Media & Society. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hameleers, Michael
2020a “My Reality Is More Truthful Than Yours: Radical Right-Wing Politicians’ and Citizens’ Construction of ‘Fake’ and ‘Truthfulness’ on Social Media – Evidence From the United States and The Netherlands.” International Journal of Communication 141 (2020): 1135–1152.Google Scholar
2020b “Populist disinformation: Exploring intersections between online populism and disinformation in the US and the Netherlands.” Politics and Governance 8, no. 1: 146–157. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haller, André and Kristoffer Holt
2019 “Paradoxical populism: How PEGIDA relates to mainstream and alternative media.” Information, Communication & Society 22, no. 12: 1665–1680. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Holt, Kristoffer, and André Haller
2017 “What Does ‘Lügenpresse’ Mean? Expressions of Media Distrust on PEGIDA’s Facebook Pages.” Politik 20, no. 4: 42–57. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Humprecht, Edda, Frank Esser, and Peter Van Aelst
2020 “Resilience to online disinformation: A framework for cross-national comparative research.” The International Journal of Press/Politics 25, no. 3: 493–516. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Humprecht, Edda, Lea Hellmueller, and Juliane A. Lischka
2020 “Hostile Emotions in News Comments: A Cross-National Analysis of Facebook Discussions.” Social Media+ Society 6, no.1: 1–12. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Jagers, Jan and Stefaan Walgrave
2007 “Populism as political communication style: An empirical study of political parties’ discourse in Belgium. European Journal of Political Research” 46, no. 3: 319–345. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Jamieson, Kathleen Hall, Allyson Volinsky, Ilana Weitz, and Kate Kenski
2017 “The political uses and abuses of civility and incivility.” The Oxford handbook of political communication, ed. by Kate Kenski and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, 205–218, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
King, Gary and Langche Zeng
2001 “Logistic regression in rare events data.” Political analysis 9, no. 2: 137–163. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kritzinger, Sylvia, Julian Aichholzer, Nico Büttner, Jakob-Moritz Eberl, Thomas Meyer, Carolina Plescia, Markus Wagner, Davide Morisi, Hajo Boomgaarden and Wolfgang C. Müller
2018 “AUTNES Multi-Mode Panel Study 2017” – Documentation. Vienna: AUSSDA. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ladd, Jonathan M.
2012 Why Americans hate the media and how it matters. Princeton University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George. Interviewed by Kurtzleben, Danielle
2017 (February 17). “With ‘Fake News,’ Trump Moves from Alternative Facts to Alternative Language.” https://​www​.npr​.org​/2017​/02​/17​/515630467​/with​-fake​-news​-trump​-moves​-from​-alternative​-facts​-to​-alternative​-language
Lischka, Juliane
2019 “A badge of honor? How The New York Times discredits President Trump’s fake news accusations.” Journalism Studies 20, no. 2: 287–304. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Löfgren Nilsson, Monica, and Henrik Örnebring
2016 “Journalism under threat: Intimidation and harassment of Swedish journalists.” Journalism Practice 10, no. 7: 880–890. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lombard, Mathew, Jennifer Snyder-Duch, and Cheryl Bracken
2002 “Content analysis in mass communication: Assessment and reporting of intercoder reliability.” Human communication research 28, no. 4: 587–604. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Masullo Chen, Gina, and Shuning Lu
2017 “Online political discourse: Exploring differences in effects of civil and uncivil disagreement in news website comments.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 61, 1: 108–125. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Masullo Chen, Gina, Paromita Pain, Victoria Y. Chen, Madlin Mekelburg, Nina Springer, and Franziska Troger
2020 “ ‘You really have to have a thick skin’: A cross-cultural perspective on how online harassment influences female journalists.” Journalism 21, no. 7, 877–895. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Maurer, Marcus, Pablo Jost, Jörg Haßler, and Simon Kruschinski
2019 „Auf den Spuren der Lügenpresse.“ [On the trail of the liar press]. Publizistik 64, no. 1: 15–35. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Meeks, Lindsey
2020 “Defining the Enemy: How Donald Trump Frames the News Media.” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 97, no. 1: 211–234. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, Cas
2004 “The populist zeitgeist.” Government and opposition 39, no. 4: 541–563. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Naab, Teresa K., Dominique Heinbach, Marc Ziegele, and Marie-Theres Grasberger
2020 “Comments and credibility: how critical user comments decrease perceived news article credibility.” Journalism Studies 21, no. 6: 783–801. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Nic, Richard Fletcher, Antonis Kalogeropoulos, David Levy, and Rasmus K. Nielsen
2018 “Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018.”Google Scholar
Newman, Nic, Richard Fletcher, Antonis Kalogeropoulos, and Rasmus K. Nielsen
2019 “Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2019.”Google Scholar
Otto, Lukas P., Sophie Lecheler, and Andreas RT Schuck
2020 “Is context the key? The (non-) differential effects of mediated incivility in three European countries.” Political Communication 37, 1: 88–107. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Prochazka, Fabian, Patrick Weber, and Wolfgang Schweiger
2018 “Effects of civility and reasoning in user comments on perceived journalistic quality.” Journalism Studies 19, no. 1: 62–78. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Quarfoot, David, and Richard A. Levine
2016 “How robust are multirater interrater reliability indices to changes in frequency distribution?” The American Statistician 70, no. 4: 373–384. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Reporters without Borders
(2018) RSF Index 2018: “Hatred of journalism threatens democracies.” Retrieved from https://​rsf​.org​/en​/rsf​-index​-2018​-hatred​-journalism​-threatens​-democracies
(2019) “2019 World Press Freedom Index.”Google Scholar
Rooduijn, Matthijs, Stijn Van Kessel, Caterina Froio, Andrea Pirro, Sarah De Lange, Daphne Halikiopoulou, Paul Lewis, Cas Mudde, and Paul Taggart
2019 “The PopuList: An Overview of Populist, Far Right, Far Left and Eurosceptic Parties in Europe.” www​.popu​-list​.org
Schulz, Anne, Werner Wirth, and Philipp Müller
2018 “We are the people and you are fake news: A social identity approach to populist citizens’ false consensus and hostile media perceptions.” Communication Research 47, no. 2: 201–226. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sobieraj, Sarah, and Jeffrey B. Berry
2011 “From incivility to outrage: Political discourse in blogs, talk radio, and cable news.” Political Communication 28, no. 1: 19–41. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Solis, Jonathan A., and Iñaki Sagarzazu
2020 “The Media Smells like Sulfur!!! Leaders and Verbal Attacks against the Fourth Estate in Unconsolidated Democracies.” Political Communication 37, no. 1: 20–45. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tsfati, Yariv and Jonathan Cohen
2005 “Democratic Consequences of Hostile Media Perceptions: The Case of Gaza Settlers.” The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 10, no. 4: 28–51. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Aelst, Peter, Jesper Strömbäck, Toril Aalberg, Frank Esser, Claes De Vreese, Jörg Matthes, David Hopmann et al.
2017 “Political communication in a high-choice media environment: a challenge for democracy?” Annals of the International Communication Association 41, no. 1: 3–27. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Dalen, Arjen
2019 “Rethinking journalist–politician relations in the age of populism: How outsider politicians delegitimize mainstream journalists.” Journalism. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Waisbord, Silvio
2018 “The elective affinity between post-truth communication and populist politics.” Communication Research and Practice 4, no. 1: 17–34. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wyatt, Wendy. N.
2007 Critical conversations: A theory of press criticism. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.Google Scholar
2019 “Press criticism” The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies, ed. by Tim P. Vos and Folker Hanusch, 1–9, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Google Scholar