What makes people deeply distrust established news media? In their new book Nationens fiender, Peter Jakobsson and Fredrik Stiernstedt examine some of journalism’s harshest critics – and find that their relationship with the media is more complex than it might first appear.
“Enemies of the nation”. That is how Sweden Democrat MP Linus Bylund described journalists in a social media post from 2016. The phrase lends its name to the new book Nationens fiender: Populistisk mediekritik i en tid av demokratisk tillbakagång [Enemies of the Nation: Populist Media Criticism in a Time of Democratic Backsliding], a new book written by Peter Jakobsson, Associate Professor of Media and Communication studies at Uppsala University, and Fredrik Stiernstedt, Professor in Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University.
In the book, Jakobsson and Stiernstedt examine what they describe as anti-media populism and the idea of established news media as an enemy of the nation. Based on several years of research, they have studied the online environments where this criticism is expressed and circulated and interviewed around a hundred people active in these contexts.
But their interest in media criticism began more than a decade ago, when the landscape looked quite different.
“When we first became interested in media criticism, we thought that media criticism in Sweden was far too internal – it was journalists criticising journalists. Since then, things have changed. Media criticism has become more common, while at the same time changing character”, Jakobsson explains.
Their research on media trust eventually led them to people with a deeply critical view of established news media.
“We were also quite fascinated by the fact that the narrative of the media as an ‘enemy’ that has ‘destroyed the country’ could have such a strong position in certain groups”, Stiernstedt says. “What is it that makes this narrative so appealing to some people? That sparked our curiosity”.
Disappointed Media Romantics
Many of the people Jakobsson and Stiernstedt interviewed are men, many stand on the political right, and many have some form of higher education. Many are also active on social media, where they discuss and criticise established news media.
But their relationship with journalism turned out to be more complicated than their strong criticism might suggest.
“Their view of the media is often critical and distancing, but it is also more nuanced than one might think”, Stiernstedt says. “It became clear that these people are extensive media users: They read newspapers, listen to podcasts and radio, watch television, follow influencers on YouTube, read international media, and use social media. Some also use so-called alternative media”.
Despite their criticism, many of the interviewees also have high expectations of journalism and the role it should play in society.
“Many of them have quite high regard for the ideals of journalism – what it should do – and for the effects it can have on users and society more broadly”, Stiernstedt continues. “Against this background, we discuss in the book whether these ‘media cynics’ might actually be seen as a kind of ‘media romantics’ – but disappointed romantics”.
Another surprise was how much people with high and low levels of media trust had in common when describing journalism’s role in society.
“Both people with high and low trust in Swedish news media describe the role of journalism in society – and the importance of journalism – in roughly the same way”, Stiernstedt notes.
Understanding the Criticism
There are many explanations for why narratives about untrustworthy media have become strong. One factor the authors point to is the rhetoric surrounding journalism.
“Claims that established news media are traitors and enemies of the nation are spread both by senior politicians and by Swedish alternative media”, Jakobsson says. “That kind of political rhetoric has an impact on how people perceive news media”.
For Jakobsson and Stiernstedt, understanding where the criticism comes from is therefore also a practical question for journalism.
“We think it is important to understand the criticism of news media in order to be able to respond to it”, Jakobsson explains. “As a journalist, you hopefully believe that journalism generally works quite well. But the question is how you explain this to people who are deeply critical of the news media”.
“Journalists should be able to defend journalism to its harshest critics”, Jakobsson concludes. “Perhaps our book can offer a little help along the way”.
The book is published by Bokförlaget Daidalos and is available to order online (in Swedish)