Undermining the legitimacy of the news media: How Swedish members of parliament use Twitter to criticise the news media
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| 25 sept 2023
| 25 sept 2023
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Publicado en línea: 25 sept 2023
Páginas: 279 - 298
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2023-0015
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© 2023 Agnes Liminga et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Examples of delegitimising media criticism in tweets from Swedish MPs
| “SVT: Governmentally funded propaganda-factory” | Josef Fransson (Sweden Democrats) |
media criticism incivility absence of reasoning bias accusations falsehood accusations public service |
This tweet is critical and seeks to delegitimise public service television. The criticism is rude, accusing SVT of engaging in propaganda, without backing it up. SVT is accused of being biased toward the state and for spreading falsehoods. |
| “Objective Swedish Radio…” | Katarina Brännström (Moderate Party) |
absence of reasoning bias accusations incivility |
This tweet sarcastically writes about objective Swedish radio, using scare quotes to question the objectivity of Swedish radio. |
| “Public service 2022. 2 out of 3 commentators are right-wing radicalized jesters” | Ali Esbati (Left Party) |
media criticism incivility bias accusation |
This tweet is sarcastically written while including an accusation that public service media is politically biased. |
| “Impartial @TV4 in their essence. Just look at the staples and enjoy. Too much red wine perhaps?” | Richard Jomshof (Sweden Democrats) |
medica criticism incivility absence of reasoning bias accusation |
The tweet is rude and blames TV4 for being (left-wing) biased, without backing it up with any substantial explanation. |
| “Surely, no thinking person longer trusts the state television which increasingly spreads Fake News. Here is another example of the wreckage on SVT… (link to SamNytt)” | Björn Söder (Sweden Democrats) |
media criticism incivility absence of reasoning fake news accusation |
The tweet is delegitimising since it blames SVT for spreading fake news. |
Party distribution of tweets referencing media and journalism from Swedish MPs
| Social Democrats | 3 | 66 |
| Moderate Party | 45 | 1,006 |
| Sweden Democrats | 20 | 461 |
| Centre Party | 3 | 79 |
| Left Party | 14 | 309 |
| Christian Democrats | 4 | 94 |
| Liberal Party | 9 | 195 |
| Green Party | 2 | 34 |
| Total | 100 |
2,244 |
Expressions and targets of delegitimising criticism from Swedish MPs (per cent)
| Bias accusations (58) | Public service (47) |
| Criticism towards the quality of the media (30) | News media in general (24) |
| Falsehood accusations (8) | Different mainstream media outlets (24) |
| Corrective information (3) | Other (5) |
| Fake news attribution (1) |
Party affiliations of MPs with Twitter accounts
| Social Democrats | 100 | 43 | 43 |
| Moderate Party | 70 | 50 | 71 |
| Sweden Democrats | 62 | 38 | 61 |
| Centre Party | 31 | 21 | 68 |
| Left Party | 27 | 21 | 78 |
| Christian Democrats | 22 | 20 | 91 |
| Liberal Party | 20 | 14 | 70 |
| Green Party | 16 | 12 | 75 |
| Total | 348 | 219 | – |
Party distribution of delegitimising media criticism from Swedish MPs
| Social Democrats | 1 | 7 |
| Moderate Party | 57 | 367 |
| Sweden Democrats | 32 | 207 |
| Centre Party | 1 | 7 |
| Left Party | 3 | 19 |
| Christian Democrats | 1 | 7 |
| Liberal Party | 3 | 17 |
| Green Party | 2 | 11 |
| Total | 100 |
642 |