Divide et Impera? Populist Digital Anti-media Criticisms

Abstract

This work aimed to determine how a core ideational dimension of populism and a component of its communicative framework -anti-elitism -was strategically conveyed through tactical attacks on the media via digital platforms. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of the understudied attacks against the press through digital means of a right-wing populist president from the Global South during his first year in office, it unpacks the strategic use of digital anti-media criticisms of the enemy construction and the polarization of the media. It confirms Twitter as the preferred platform for Jair Bolsonaro's anti-media attacks right from the outset of the term. The digital attacks portfolio ranged from discrediting media sectors for lying, displaying bias, and being the source of fake news that contradicted its foundational role of accurately informing the public to unduly assuming as an opposition political actor. Besides undermining journalism's epistemic legitimacy and raising questions about its social role Bolsonaro further committed himself to the enemy construction of the press and only indirectly polarized the news media between friends and foes.