Populists’ Views towards Public Service Media in Sweden and Spain

The next session at IAMCR 2023 is on populism, and starts with Karen Arriaza Ibarra, whose focus is on populist parties’ views on public service media. In general, populism has been defined by the centrality of binary distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘them’ – the ‘pure’ people and the ‘corrupt’ elites. In presenting these messages, it can then also be defined by the discursive approaches and tropes its draws on. Embedded into this is also a powerful sense of grievance and nostalgia, harking after a lost golden age that was lost and can be restored again by strengthening certain social in-group identities and excluding others.

Populism also stresses the loss of individual autonomy, and neo-populism highlights the identity aspects that were lost through this process; in Europe, it has been successful especially in Italy and Spain at the regional and national level. Populist radical right movements are highly dependent on the media, and sympathetic media themselves can have populist tendencies – this pits them especially against public service media, which are often seen as the media of the elites. These media are therefore key targets for populist parties in Europe, which often explicitly seek to dominate or dismantle public service media.

The present study examines populist party views towards public service media in Sweden and Spain, therefore, focussing on the key populist parties Sweden Democrats and Vox, respectively, and examining their various policy documents, parliamentary statements, media coverage, and other sources.

The Sweden Democrats are now the second largest party in Swedish parliament, and support the conservative/liberal government; they have policies to publish journalists producing partisan content, and to institute a close parliamentary scrutiny of public service media. Vox is now the third largest party in Spain, and calls for the closure of regional TV channels, the punishment of supposedly partisan journalists, and the close scrutiny of partisan content in public service media. There are clear parallels between their views, therefore.

There is also some support for public service media from both parties, however – but only if such media support a nationalist, populist line. Critical journalist tends to be seen as politically partisan or left-wing.