Undermining the legitimacy of the news media: How Swedish members of parliament use Twitter to criticise the news media
Over the last decade, the news media increasingly seem to have become a target for politically motivated criticism seeking to delegitimise the news media. The prevalence of delegitimising media criticism is, however, unclear. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which Swe...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Sciendo
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Nordicom Review |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2023-0015 |
| _version_ | 1797354385491099648 |
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| author | Liminga Agnes Strömbäck Jesper |
| author_facet | Liminga Agnes Strömbäck Jesper |
| author_sort | Liminga Agnes |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Over the last decade, the news media increasingly seem to have become a target for politically motivated criticism seeking to delegitimise the news media. The prevalence of delegitimising media criticism is, however, unclear. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which Swedish members of parliament (MPs) engage in delegitimising media criticism on Twitter, the party distribution of those engaging in such media criticism, and the targets and expressions of such media critique. Among other things, the findings show that when MPs tweet about the news media, they are more likely to be critical than supportive, and that a clear majority of tweets that are critical toward the news media contain delegitimising media criticism. Moreover, the results show that MPs from the political right – in particular the Moderate Party and the Sweden Democrats – are most active in tweeting delegitimising media criticism, and that the most common target is public service media. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T13:48:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dc630ea4bdf54acd8c3554af4fe154c3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2001-5119 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T13:48:44Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordicom Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-dc630ea4bdf54acd8c3554af4fe154c32024-01-16T07:20:06ZengSciendoNordicom Review2001-51192023-09-0144227929810.2478/nor-2023-0015Undermining the legitimacy of the news media: How Swedish members of parliament use Twitter to criticise the news mediaLiminga Agnes0Strömbäck Jesper1Department of Sociology, Umeå University, SwedenDepartment of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg, SwedenOver the last decade, the news media increasingly seem to have become a target for politically motivated criticism seeking to delegitimise the news media. The prevalence of delegitimising media criticism is, however, unclear. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which Swedish members of parliament (MPs) engage in delegitimising media criticism on Twitter, the party distribution of those engaging in such media criticism, and the targets and expressions of such media critique. Among other things, the findings show that when MPs tweet about the news media, they are more likely to be critical than supportive, and that a clear majority of tweets that are critical toward the news media contain delegitimising media criticism. Moreover, the results show that MPs from the political right – in particular the Moderate Party and the Sweden Democrats – are most active in tweeting delegitimising media criticism, and that the most common target is public service media.https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2023-0015delegitimising media criticismsocial mediapopulist communicationright-wing populismpublic service |
| spellingShingle | Liminga Agnes Strömbäck Jesper Undermining the legitimacy of the news media: How Swedish members of parliament use Twitter to criticise the news media Nordicom Review delegitimising media criticism social media populist communication right-wing populism public service |
| title | Undermining the legitimacy of the news media: How Swedish members of parliament use Twitter to criticise the news media |
| title_full | Undermining the legitimacy of the news media: How Swedish members of parliament use Twitter to criticise the news media |
| title_fullStr | Undermining the legitimacy of the news media: How Swedish members of parliament use Twitter to criticise the news media |
| title_full_unstemmed | Undermining the legitimacy of the news media: How Swedish members of parliament use Twitter to criticise the news media |
| title_short | Undermining the legitimacy of the news media: How Swedish members of parliament use Twitter to criticise the news media |
| title_sort | undermining the legitimacy of the news media how swedish members of parliament use twitter to criticise the news media |
| topic | delegitimising media criticism social media populist communication right-wing populism public service |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2023-0015 |
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