The Structural and Temporal Curb of Populism: A Cross-Country Analysis of Authoritarian Populist Influences on Journalism

As right-wing authoritarian-populism becomes a defining feature of world politics, scholars increasingly acknowledge its challenging impacts on journalism. Focusing largely on the populist rhetoric, this interest leaves the structural influences of authoritarian-populism on the journalistic field across diverse contexts largely unexplored. By drawing on in-depth interviews (n = 83) with journalists in Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, and Turkey, and combining political-economic, institutional and temporal analysis of authoritarian-populism, we develop a structural approach towards authoritarian-populist influences on journalism. We discuss three structural forces that authoritarian-populists in power implement or instrumentalise to influence journalism in respective countries: the discriminatory use of institutional power to deepen the polarisation, the populist intervention into ownership structures of the news media, and the strategic use of digitalisation in journalism. We argue that authoritarian-populism is a process whereby the curb of populist structural forces increases over time as authoritarian-populist politics mature in power.