Speaking Power to the People: Serbian and Brazilian Media Systems in Populist Times
Speaking Power to the People: Serbian and Brazilian Media Systems in Populist Times

Summary/Abstract: A decline in journalistic standards and increased media control, are well recognizedhallmarks of increased autocratisation and democratic backsliding. This paperinvestigates the impact of populism on the media landscape in two differentcountries, Brazil and Serbia. It argues that despite the radical differences instructural factors (wealth, relationship with the EU, history of democracy, politicalsystem, etc.), these countries have witnessed a similar decline in media quality, aswell as a decline in the quality of democracy. Using the Serbian case as a ‘standard’case of populist control and drawing on interviews with Brazilian journalists asa ‘surprising’ case, this paper argues that populist aspiring autocrats will use both‘hard’ mechanisms of legal control, as well as ‘softer’ methods of ‘anticipatorysteering’ to control private media. Overall, this highlights the relevance of researchinto the structures of media systems themselves in understanding such outcomes.

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