The Shifting Balance of State and Non-State Political Actors in the ‘Post-Global’ Media Landscape

• In Event: Populism and Post-Global Media

Abstract

Conventional narratives of media globalization have often constructed a narrative shift from media that was predominantly nationally-based and state-supported or regulated, to more ‘borderless’ forms of global media enabled by technological changes and driven by the expansion of global markets and the transnational movement of people. But it has been apparent for some time that nation-states are themselves major drivers of media globalization, often in forms that differ from the classic models of international news journalism. Satellite networks such as RT, Telesur, CGTN and others typically have content that is more overtly instrumental in alignment to certain foreign policy objectives, and these sites are also significant players online. Moreover, non-state actors such as ISIS themselves developed global media strategies as part of their recruitment drives. There has also been the micro-targeted appeal of the ‘alt-right’ platforms such as Breitbart, Rebel Media, Infowars etc. which can have outsized influence internationally by being platforms for ‘outsider’ voices and anti-elite populists, and which are political projects driven by politically connected non-state actors. Social media has an amplifying influence upon such voices, which challenge the nexus drawn between global media, the declining power of nation-states, and the rise of cosmopolitan, ‘post-national’ identities.

Author

• Terry Flew, Queensland U of Technology