Research project The Hybridization of political communication

Previous symposium on 'Democracy and Digital Disintegration'
 

Over the last decade, digital transformations in the media landscape have caused a breakdown of boundaries between producers and consumers of news, between professional journalists and amateurs, and between journalism and propaganda presented in "alternative media" or "fake news" formats. Politicians are less dependent on journalistic gatekeepers to spread their messages, since they can circumvent journalists and communicate directly with citizens via party based news and social media. The content often comes with an aura of journalistic authenticity that political actors use to address societal problems from a "neutral" perspective. Parties across the entire political spectrum are now mobilizing resources to create "news units", "media houses" and online "newspapers" as the 2022 election approaches. While such initiatives may increase the public’s interest in political issues and mobilize voters, experiences from other European countries show that a strong politization of the concept of "news" may strengthen political polarization and increase public distrust in politics and media institutions. The purpose of this project is to advance the understanding of political communication by turning the spotlight on what we refer to as news in "parasitic" forms. We analyze the production, content, circulation and polarizing dimensions of such news during the 2022 election in Sweden, deploying a mixed methods approach including quantitative, qualitative, and computational methods.  

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