Media som aktør i populistisk politisk kommunikasjon - Hvordan forstår politiske journalister sin egen rolle i møte med populismen?

Abstract

This master thesis examines how political journalists understand their role in the face of populism. The study is a qualitative analysis based on seven elite interviews with political reporters, editors and commentators from NRK, TV, VG, Klassekampen, ABC nyheter, Adresseavisen and Nationen. The study is based on the assumption that populism is a communication style and a “thin” ideology. The analysis show that journalist look at populism as both a challenge, but also a positive contribution to democracy. They emphasize that populism may increase political participation and diversity, but at the same time lead to increased polarization in the public debate. The main findings in the analysis is that Norwegian media find them self in a squeeze between wanting to deliver critical journalism and generating enough readers to survive economically in a media world there things are moving faster, and everyone is their own editor on social media. They also see “new” media such as Resett.no and Document.no as a challenge, as they see these media as not following the same ethical rules as traditional media does. At the same the analysis show that the journalist do not look as populism as a major challenge in Norwegian society, and that they can’t see that their coverage of populist actors have led to more populist voters.