# taz.de -- Spotlight Populism: Step back, reflect and ask | |
> There were many factors that facilitated the rise of populism in Britain, | |
> but the media has taken much of the blame. | |
Bild: Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom's Independence Party | |
Britain’s rising populism reached a rapid crescendo around the EU | |
referendum in June. Following a campaign in which legitimate concerns mixed | |
freely with poor information and outright lies – most infamously, the Leave | |
campaign’s empty promise that exiting the EU would allow the government to | |
spend £350 million more a week on the UK’s national health service – 52% of | |
the population voted out. Chief among their concerns were immigration, | |
sovereignty and the perceived power of the liberal elite; Brexit was seen | |
as an opportunity to seize back control. Yet many people felt that rarely | |
in UK politics has campaigning been so divisive, disingenuous and | |
personality-driven. | |
There were many factors that facilitated the rise of this movement, but the | |
media has taken much of the blame. Many of the UK’s most popular newspapers | |
campaigned against EU membership, often using misleading information and | |
provocative headlines. This was the culmination of many years of negative | |
reporting on the EU: false and exaggerated reports have become so | |
commonplace in the British media since the 1990s that the EU now runs its | |
own “Euromyths“ blog to debunk the stories. | |
In recent years, this has escalated into some truly vicious journalism on | |
issues relating to immigration and the EU. In April 2015, for example, The | |
Sun newspaper published a column by Katie Hopkins – a reality TV star | |
turned commentator – in which she described migrants and refugees crossing | |
the Mediterranean as “cockroaches“ and suggested they should be turned away | |
by gunboats. More recently, after the High Court ruled that under British | |
law the government cannot trigger Article 50 to leave the EU without | |
parliamentary approval, The Daily Mail printed photographs of the three | |
judges who made the decision on its frontpage under the headline: “Enemies | |
of the People“. | |
There remains a big question over how far the media is able to influence, | |
rather than simply reflect, these populist sentiments. Not all publications | |
have behaved in this way and the efforts made by some to reveal | |
inaccuracies during the referendum campaign were often ignored. With so | |
many other sources of information now available, the media may be complicit | |
in populist fervour – it may exacerbate the problem and stoke divisions – | |
but it is unlikely to be the root cause. | |
## The role of media | |
Nonetheless, this kind of behaviour by the media does play a role. | |
Importantly, it helps to set the tone of the debate. The established media | |
is often regarded as a marker of what is considered mainstream and | |
acceptable, and what is not. Looking at the headlines, those parameters | |
have been blown wide open in recent times. | |
It is also part of a wider context in which the public has lost trust in | |
mainstream media, seeing it as biased, unreliable and inextricably tied to | |
the same establishment it is supposed to critique. Surveys show that there | |
is less trust in the press in Britain than almost anywhere else in Europe. | |
It is healthy for the media to be scrutinized and questioned by its | |
readers, forcing it to improve. But when people feel they cannot believe | |
what they read in the newspapers, they turn to other – often less reliable | |
– sources instead; a problem that has been exacerbated by the rise of | |
unregulated news sources online. The proliferation of fake news stories | |
surrounding this year’s US presidential campaign is a case in point. This, | |
in turn, undermines the media’s ability to act as a “fourth estate“ – it | |
cannot hold authorities to account if the public does not believe what it | |
reports. | |
Newspapers in the UK are regulated by a code of ethics that includes | |
accuracy and fairness in reporting, but we should resist calls for greater | |
regulation that could have the effect of restricting freedom of expression. | |
Instead, the quality media must take steps to win back some of the trust | |
that has been lost and work hard to re-engage readers. There is a demand | |
for reliable, high-quality journalism that is open about its interests, | |
honest about its cause and serious about the facts. Newspapers need to | |
ensure greater transparency in their reporting; to tackle concerns about | |
their editorial independence; and to re-prioritise factual accuracy, which | |
has been eroded by digital competition and a lack of financial resources. | |
A reliable and responsible media is crucial to the democratic system. It | |
may not be the root cause of populism, but it is clear that it has become | |
part of the problem. As journalists we need to step back, reflect and ask | |
what we can do. | |
Jessica Abrahams is a British journalist and writer for Prospect magazine, | |
and has contributed to publications including The Guardian and The | |
Telegraph. She was based at taz in 2016 as a fellow of the International | |
Journalists' Programme. | |
28 Mar 2017 | |
## AUTOREN | |
Jessica Abrahams | |
## TAGS | |
taz international | |
taz in English | |
Populismus | |
Schwerpunkt Brexit | |
Großbritannien | |
Schwerpunkt Brexit | |
taz in English | |
USA | |
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