Društvene i Humanističke Studije (Mar 2022)
Political Economy and Media Ecology of Trumpism: A Contribution to the Study of Anti-systemic Politics
Abstract
Concepts developed in the field of political economy offer a useful framework for explaining, from aWestern perspective, the phenomenon of Trumpism as an expression of anti-system politics emergingin rich democracies in response to the effects of neoliberal growth models and the cartel forms of politicalparties. While insightful, this theory does not account for the role of media in presumed relationships.The article aims to offer, through exploratory analysis, the theoretical basis for conceptualization of thelinks between media, anti-system politics, and growth models. Trumpism developed, we argue, underthe conditions of destabilization of traditional institutional arrangements of the news business, whichenabled and limited the functions of journalism important for the democratization of the „Western“society. The paper contributes to the development of an alternative theoretical approach to the study ofthe media aspect of Trumpism concerning the prevailing corpus of ideas about "post-truth", "false news"and "echo chambers".
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