Populist Propaganda Platforms

Why They’re Undermining News Media and What We Can Do About It

Newspapers aren’t dead. But, if populists have anything to say about it, their influence is declining.

Social media have broken their monopolies, whether used by Spain’s Vox, Italy’s Lega per Salvini Premier, or Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland.

By providing news, information, and ideas in line with party policies as reporting and fact while belittling journalism for bias and manipulation, populist parties present themselves as the new news media.

A people’s news media, to be precise, made by the people, for the people, not the elites. It may not produce news, but its blogging of political commentary and aggregation of news content from far-right sources works the same for many.

The platforms are familiar. Relying on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram, populists decry Islam, wokeness, feminism and transgender to devastating effect.

As a result, social media have given populist parties unprecedented reach and influenced European politics and culture in ways not seen since the 1930s, when authoritarian governments more tightly controlled the media.

The proof is in the pudding. Users substitute their messaging for reportage from newspapers and broadcasters. Doing so helps confirm populist parties' role as information providers, blurring the distinction between publishing and politics.

What's often overlooked about populist news is that it is propaganda published by political parties acting as a media, one that replaces the "lügenpresse" or false media, as the current popularity of the Nazi-era term in Germany suggests.

How did we get to such a point? Is it just a consequence of the citizen journalism opportunities created by online and social media, or is it a reflection of a more significant breakdown of public trust in journalism? We intend to answer that.

The Battleground will conduct extensive interviews with followers of populist parties and far-right news outlets in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom who have switched from journalistic to party media platforms, including podcasts.

Our journalists will also spend equal time examining populist media's audience and engagement data. Often criticised for inflating their following, our study will provide a critical contrast to complement the insights gleaned from our interviews.

The Battleground aims to understand why Europeans have abandoned the mainstream press, exchanging it for disinformation and incitement, and make recommendations about improving journalism and press regulation to redress the problem.

Project publications will include regular online articles, newsletters and podcasts by our journalists working across Europe. The best of these publications will be featured in an anthology, which Battleground Books will issue after completing this project.