Guest Lecture Katy Brown and Aurelien Mondon
Media, populism and the mainstreaming of the radical right
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Online)
27.4.21
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Online)
27.4.21
On 27 April 2021 Katy Brown and Aurelien Mondon will give a lecture on media, populism and the mainstreaming of the radical right. The lecture is followed by ample time for debate moderated by Jana Goyvaerts (Vrije Universiteit Brussel).
The event takes place online from 13h-15h, and is open to everyone after registration through this link. The Zoom-link to attend the lecture will be sent out on the morning of the lecture.
The event takes place online from 13h-15h, and is open to everyone after registration through this link. The Zoom-link to attend the lecture will be sent out on the morning of the lecture.
Populism seems to define our current political age. The term is splashed across the headlines, brandished in political speeches and commentaries, and applied extensively in numerous academic publications and conferences. This pervasive usage, or populist hype, has serious implications for our understanding of the meaning of populism itself and for our interpretation of the phenomena to which it is applied. In particular, its common conflation with far-right politics, as well as its breadth of application to other phenomena, has contributed to the mainstreaming of the far right in three main ways: (1) agenda-setting power and deflection, (2) euphemisation and trivialisation, and (3) amplification. Through a mixed-methods approach to discourse analysis, Katy Brown and Aurelien Mondon use The Guardian newspaper as a case study to explore the development of the populist hype and the detrimental effects of the logics that it has pushed in public discourse.
Katy Brown is a PhD student at the University of Bath whose research focuses on the mainstreaming of the far right in Europe. Her thesis works on theorising mainstreaming and analysing the role of elite discourse from mainstream politicians, media outlets, and academics in this process. She has recently had an article published in the journal Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, which explores Islamophobia and Orientalism in far-right opposition to Turkish involvement in the European Union.
Aurelien Mondon is a Senior Lecturer in politics at the University of Bath. His research focuses predominantly on the impact of racism and populism on liberal democracies and the mainstreaming of far-right politics through elite discourse. His first book, The Mainstreaming of the Extreme Right in France and Australia: A Populist Hegemony?, was published in 2013, and he recently co-edited After Charlie Hebdo: Terror, Racism and Free Speech published with Zed. His latest book Reactionary Democracy: How Racism and the Populist Far Right Became Mainstream, co-written with Aaron Winter, was published with Verso in May 2020.
Katy Brown is a PhD student at the University of Bath whose research focuses on the mainstreaming of the far right in Europe. Her thesis works on theorising mainstreaming and analysing the role of elite discourse from mainstream politicians, media outlets, and academics in this process. She has recently had an article published in the journal Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, which explores Islamophobia and Orientalism in far-right opposition to Turkish involvement in the European Union.
Aurelien Mondon is a Senior Lecturer in politics at the University of Bath. His research focuses predominantly on the impact of racism and populism on liberal democracies and the mainstreaming of far-right politics through elite discourse. His first book, The Mainstreaming of the Extreme Right in France and Australia: A Populist Hegemony?, was published in 2013, and he recently co-edited After Charlie Hebdo: Terror, Racism and Free Speech published with Zed. His latest book Reactionary Democracy: How Racism and the Populist Far Right Became Mainstream, co-written with Aaron Winter, was published with Verso in May 2020.
This event is organized as part of the course “Populist and Radical Political Discourses in Europe”, taught by Benjamin De Cleen in the Journalism and Media in Europe Master.
Other guest lecturers in the series:
Other guest lecturers in the series:
- Giorgos Katsambekis: populism and ‘the people’: beyond moralism and homogeneity (9 March)
- Ruth Breeze: nationalism and populism on the radical right (16 March)
- Jacopo Custodi: nationalism and populism in Podemos (23 March)
- Léonie de Jonge: the media and the populist radical right (30 March)
- Jana Goyvaerts: media and populism: defending what kind of democracy? (20 April)
- Louise Knops: media, populism, indignation: insights from the radical-right (4 May)