[ecrea] Moment Journal CFP - populism and the media

*Moment Journal <http://www.momentdergi.org/index.php/momentdergi> Call 
for Articles*

*(Vol 6, No1, June 2019)* *
*

*POPULISM AND THE MEDIA *

Populism has been emerging as an indicator of the deep crisis of liberal 
democracies in our times. However, contrary to popular belief, populism 
is not an exception, deviation or malfunction of actual (neo)liberal 
democracies, rather, it is in itself an inevitable component of modern 
democracies and a symptom of neoliberal hegemony’s crisis.

After the attacks against public broadcasting which started in 1970’s, 
commercial broadcasting became widespread in 1980’s and brought about 
horizontal and vertical consodilation. Along with the emanation of huge 
media empires in countries such as England, USA and Italy, the press’s 
informing and public responsibilities were pushed to the background. 
Therefore, a media language has become dominant, which targeted and 
constructed increasingly diversifying, growing and average tastes. In 
the cracks of the media’s dominant language, a mob culture is sprouting 
out of populism, and being gradually normalized. In addition to the 
concept of /infotainment/ referring to the intertwining of news language 
and entertaintment language, there occurred the concept of 
/politainment/ referring to the intertwining of politics, entertaintment 
and spectacle. When we conceive the transformation in the media in 
conjunction with the transformation in politics, we can realize how 
these two perfectly accompany each other. The transformation the media 
has undergone in the last decades tells a lot about the populism of our 
times to us.

Currently, the styles and rhetoric of populist movements and leaders all 
around the world are remarkably bearing resemblances to one another. 
Though there are significant differences among them, one of the common 
grounds of populist movements and leaders lies in their use of the mass 
media. In a time when politics becomes mediatized and performative, “the 
populist as an anti-hero” rises as one of the most adept characters of 
this show. The populist is an actor on whom to say much, yet due to a 
lack of organized willpower only he himself talks in an excessive and 
careless way. Of course, the symbolic elites and journalists who regard 
each and every word of the populist as a sign of wisdom play a crucial 
role in the mass recognition of his discourse. The media of our times is 
mainly inclined to cock its ear to the great scandals, crisis and noisy 
confusions as well as its commitment to spreading “bad news”; it pledges 
itself to presenting non-objectionable, comprehensible, remarkable and 
normative contents to the masses. That’s the reason why it rather values 
persons over abstract things, celebrities over anonymous people, 
scandals over approved behaviours, styles over contents and accidents 
over ordinary incidents. It’s no surprise that the rise of populism in 
politics goes hand in hand with the tabloidization and alleviation of 
contents in the media. Out of these two strides, both the tradesman and 
the media boss come out ahead. On the other hand, the most of the 
detriment resides in the citizen who needs the truth more than ever.

We mostly observe the overlapping between the assertion of populism as 
“the choice of the public” and the economic rationality that 
neoliberalism attributes to the public/consumer through relations of 
production in the media. The media claims that, it prepares all the 
contents by looking after “the will of the public”. Similarly, the 
populist defends his own ideas by ascribing them to the public or by 
putting forth deadly influential ideas as his own. In this sense, there 
surfaces a hidden complicity between the populist and the logic of media 
production.  As a result of this complicity, populism brings about an 
authoritarian moment in which the truth flies to pieces, the masses 
become unaware of what to believe; yet nobody raises objection to the 
entire willpower of the populist at all. Thus, it can be argued that 
populism reveals itself as the most prevalent prospect of neoliberal 
authoritarianism.

We are aiming at understanding this problem of our times via Moment 
Journal’s issue on “Populism and the Media” throughout the subheadings 
such as populism, mediatization, tabloidization and popular culture. We 
are looking forward to your empirical and theoretical contributions to 
our issue under the headings listed below.

·Populist style

·Populist rationality

·Populism and mediatization of politics

·Populism and news processes

·Populism and the social media

·Populism, the media and democracy

·Reflections of right and left wing populisms to our times

·Truth, post-truth and populism

·Populism and cultural war

·Populism and cultural power

·Dominance of the average and populism

·Conservative populism and the language of TV serials

·Populism and everyday life

·Populist rhetoric and disreputation of journalism

·Gender and populism

·Populism and anti-intellectualism

·Understandings of culture, art and aesthetics in conservative populism

*Publication Process: *

The manuscripts should be submitted to the Moment Journal till *March 
15th, 2019.*

**

*Theme Editors:*

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tezcan Durna (Uğur Mumcu Investigative Journalism 
Foundation)

(tezcandurna /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(tezcandurna /at/ gmail.com)>

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Burak Özçetin (Istanbul Bilgi University, Department of 
Media)

(burakozcetin /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(burakozcetin /at/ gmail.com)>

For detailed information and instructions of submission to /Moment 
Journal, /see://

http://www.momentdergi.org/index.php/momentdergi/about/submissions




--
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Burak Özçetin
İstanbul Bilgi University  | Department of Media
p: +90 212 311 7277 <tel:+90+212+311+7277>
a: Eski Silahtarağa Elektrik Santralı Kazım Karabekir Cad. No: 2/13 
34060 Eyüpsultan İstanbul

twitter <https://twitter.com/ozcetinburak>	linkedin 
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/burak-%C3%B6z%C3%A7etin-a7822747/>

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