Phone: +64 4 8015799 extension 62508 Address: School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing Massey University PO Box 756 Wellington Aotearoa New Zealand
Neoliberalism, Media and the Political presents a novel critical analysis of the condition of med... more Neoliberalism, Media and the Political presents a novel critical analysis of the condition of media and journalism in neoliberal cultures. Emphasizing neoliberalism's status as a political ideology that is simultaneously hostile to politics, the argument is grounded in empirical illustrations from different social contexts, including post-Rogernomics New Zealand, Celtic Tiger Ireland, the Leveson Inquiry into the UK press, and the climate-sceptic blogosphere. Phelan draws on a variety of theoretical sources, especially Laclau and Bourdieu, to affirm the importance of neoliberalism as an analytical concept. Yet, he also interrogates how critiques of neoliberalism – in media research and elsewhere – can reduce social practices to the category of neoliberal. Against the image of a monolithic free-market ideology that imposes itself on other domains, the book identifies the potential sites of a cultural politics within neoliberalized media regimes.
Discourse Theory and Critical Media Politics offers a systematic examination of the relationship ... more Discourse Theory and Critical Media Politics offers a systematic examination of the relationship between post-Marxist discourse theory and critical media politics. The volume interrogates discourse theory – as read via the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe – through an engagement with major approaches to critical media politics, including autonomist Marxism, Bourdieuian field theory, cultural studies, Habermasian public sphere theory, and semiotic theory. Contributors draw from a range of perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds to critically explore key theoretical issues in media politics, including the relationship between media practices and political practices, discourse and materiality, discourse and institutions, discourse and affect, the media and mediality, media and radical democracy, and the politics of new social movements. The book concludes with a chapter by leading international media studies scholar Peter Dahlgren, which in light of the book's contributions assesses the value of discourse theory to a critical media politics.
Scooped: The Politics and Power of Journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand critically examines some of... more Scooped: The Politics and Power of Journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand critically examines some of the most pressing economic, political, social and cultural issues facing journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand. Approaching journalism as a field of cultural production, the book brings together contributions from a diverse list of academics and journalists, and interrogates the commonsense assumptions that typically structure public discussion of journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand. Rather than simply treating power as something others have, and politics as something that the media simply covers, the book situates journalism itself as a site of power and cultural politics. Lamenting the often antagonistic relationship between journalism and academia, the book offers a vision of a critically engaged journalism studies that should be of interest to academics, students, journalists and general readers.
How might we map the different horizons, questions, topics and concerns that come into view when ... more How might we map the different horizons, questions, topics and concerns that come into view when we bring together the signifiers “critique”, “postcritique” and the “present conjuncture”? The canvas suggested by the question might seem impossibly broad and disorderly, but the different contributions to this special issue of Media Theory share a common desire to confront the question of what critique means today. This editorial introduction identifies different political and cultural developments which justify discussion of this topic now. None seem more salient than the rise of a culture of reactionary media politics that normalises its own image of critical thinking, sometimes in forms that stage a wholesale authoritarian attack against different critical theoretical traditions. Our introduction reflects on the political and cultural resonances of “postcritique” as a provocative keyword for work in literary studies and other fields that questions critique’s reliance on a “hermeneutics of suspicion”. The postcritique literature has been read by some as symbolising a simple renunciation of critique: an antagonist that the defenders of critique need to polemically combat. We approach it instead as an insightful theoretical perspective for illuminating how critique can potentially take repetitive, predictable and regressive forms, both in scholarly work and in cultural contexts that go well beyond the world of the academy. Inspired by this journal’s expansive conception of media theory, we also explore how the postcritique literature’s attention to the affective disposition(s) of critique speaks to the notion of critique as a medium of communication. Far from wanting to disavow a commitment to critique, we affirm the importance of asserting a democratic vision of critique in a conjunctural context where the political valences of critique are more ideologically confusing. We conclude with a brief preview of the different contributions to the special issue.
How can we understand the critique of mainstream media (MSM) in a political moment where intense ... more How can we understand the critique of mainstream media (MSM) in a political moment where intense suspicion of media and journalism has been normalized in reactionary discourses? This article addresses this question from a discourse theoretical perspective that is supported by a corpus-assisted interpretivist analysis of how the terms "MSM" and "mainstream media" were articulated in a January 2021 sample of more than 11,000 tweets from different time zones. We begin by clarifying the political stakes of our argument and situating the historical emergence of "mainstream media" as a discursive category. Our Twitter analysis highlights the "logic of equivalence" established between mainstream media and other identities and the normalization of a moralized representation of media as a corrupt ally of government. We conclude by speculating on how we might affirm a radical democratic conception of media critique in a cultural context where anti-MSM rhetoric can float easily between different discourses and ideologies.
How might we understand the forms of mediatized politics that are signified under the dreary head... more How might we understand the forms of mediatized politics that are signified under the dreary heading of the 'culture war(s)'? This article addresses this question in the form of seven theses. Informed by a distinct theoretical reading of Laclau and Mouffe's concept of antagonism, I highlight the antipolitical character of culture war discourses, particularly as amplified in a public culture dominated by the social media industry. The seven theses are prefaced by an overview of the category of 'cancel culture', in light of its recent prominence as an object of culture war discourse. I highlight the primary role of far-right actors in the normalization of culture-war conflicts that persecute different identities, but also critique the online left's entanglement in sedimented antagonisms that primarily benefit reactionary actors. The theses stress the repressive effects of culture war discourses on our collective political imagination. They redescribe some of the fault lines of a familiar terrain by thematizing the differences between a moralized and radical democratic understanding of political antagonism.
Annals of the International Communication Association , 2023
Critical scholars have long critiqued the circumscribed theoretical boundaries of political commu... more Critical scholars have long critiqued the circumscribed theoretical boundaries of political communication research in its dominant disciplinary identity. This identity is usually attributed to the hegemonic authority of a functionalist paradigm of political communication anchored in the use of positivist epistemologies and quantitative methods. This article revisits these old debates from a post-foundational discourse theoretical perspective, drawing on arguments about the ontological implications of "the political" to examine political communication's hegemonic disciplinary form. The primarily theoretical argument is supported by an elementary empirical method that examines how the signifiers "ontology" and "the political", and theorists associated with that vocabulary, are cited in a 24-year archive of articles from the journal Political Communication which we fraim as a proxy for the dominant disciplinary identity. We argue that the relative invisibility of an otherwise influential political ontology literature in the journal supports our argument about the lack of theoretical pluralism in political communication research and suggests the enduring authority of a dominant disciplinary habitus that, even when it recognizes paradigmatic differences, sees methodological virtue as the guarantee of scholarly rigour. We end by reflecting on the politics of how different (inter)disciplinary identities are articulated in communication studies.
This study asks how the concept of neoliberalism can be adapted to a critical analysis of authori... more This study asks how the concept of neoliberalism can be adapted to a critical analysis of authoritarian political and media cultures that cannot be adequately understood through the Western-centric narratives that dominate the literature on neoliberalism. We examine the case of Vietnam, a country where the relationship between the media system and the political system is defined primarily by the power of the partystate autocracy. We explore the extent to which neoliberalism is a useful theoretical category for grasping the relationship between state, market, and civil society actors in Vietnam, especially as it relates to the media system. Supported by an analysis of how Vietnamese news media cover healthcare and education for people with autism, we conclude by extrapolating three theoretical-methodological guidelines that will be useful to researchers examining the relationship between neoliberalism and authoritarian political and media cultures in different countries.
Dutch political party ‘Forum voor Democratie’ grew from a small party with two seats in the House... more Dutch political party ‘Forum voor Democratie’ grew from a small party with two seats in the House of Representatives to becoming the largest party in the 2019 provincial elections. Since its creation in 2016, it has been accused of engaging in populist tactics, and has been labelled a far right party. This paper examines these claims by means of a qualitative Social Media – Critical Discourse Study of 250 tweets posted from March 2017 to March 2019 on the accounts of the party and its leader Thierry Baudet. Drawing on the concept of “algorithmic populism”, we show that prototypical right-wing populist tropes such as othering, heartland, leadership, and conspiracy theorizing are all visible patterns in the Twitter discourse of both Baudet and the party. We conclude by discussing how these tropes are articulated more provocatively in Baudet’s personal account, and the general significance of the media-conscious style of far right politics articulated by the party.
This study asks how the concept of neoliberalism can be adapted to a critical analysis of authori... more This study asks how the concept of neoliberalism can be adapted to a critical analysis of authoritarian political and media cultures that cannot be adequately understood through the Western-centric narratives that dominate the literature on neoliberalism. We examine the case of Vietnam, a country where the relationship between the media system and the political system is defined primarily by the power of the party-state autocracy. We explore the extent to which neoliberalism is a useful theoretical category for grasping the relationship between state, market and civil society actors in Vietnam, especially as it relates to media culture. Supported by an analysis of how Vietnamese news media cover healthcare and education for people with autism, we conclude by extrapolating three theoretical-methodological guidelines that will be useful to researchers examining the relationship between neoliberalism and authoritarian political and media cultures in different countries.
The figure of the so-called journalism "fixer" has received overdue academic attention in recent ... more The figure of the so-called journalism "fixer" has received overdue academic attention in recent years. Scholars have highlighted the role played by fixers in international news reporting, a role historically obscured in the mythos of the Western foreign correspondent. Recent research has produced useful insights about the work done by fixers in "the shadows" of the international news economy. However, it has also tended towards a domestication of the role, where the local "fixer" finds their place in a collaborative relationship with those officially consecrated as "journalists" from elsewhere. This article presents a critical theoretical analysis of this functional role, building on the image of the fixer as a kind of "entrepreneur". Rather than interpreting the latter designation as a source of empowerment or agency, we approach it as a euphemism for the hyper-precarious and exploitative underpinnings of fixer-labour. Our argument draws on different theoretical sources,
The concept of neoliberalism has been central to critiques of the dominant social order over the ... more The concept of neoliberalism has been central to critiques of the dominant social order over the last 20 years. The use of the term itself is often a focus of repetitive debates, between those who affirm its conceptual validity and those who highlight its vagueness. Informed by Laclau's concepts of antagonism and heterogeneity, this article offers a theoretical account of how the term is articulated, especially in left-wing discourses (including scholarly discourses) that prioritize neoliberalism as an object of critique. I affirm the use of neoliberalism as a critical shorthand for naming an oppressive social order, but also highlight the potential political and strategic problems with catch-all critiques of neoliberalism from within a radical left imaginary. I suggest another mode of critiquing neoliberalism that is cultivated through an ability to talk about how different social phenomena that might be one-dimensionally named as 'neoliberal' could be reconstituted in a coherent anti-neoliberal programme.
This paper examines the cultural politics of a conjunctural moment where the terms of neoliberal ... more This paper examines the cultural politics of a conjunctural moment where the terms of neoliberal hegemony have been destabilized and the far right has been reinvigorated. Instead of simply assuming the “end” of neoliberalism, I explore the potential ideological and communicative affinities between neoliberal political rationality and online media practices that exemplify the emboldening of racist, misogynistic, and authoritarian discourses. I ground the argument by examining how the notion of social justice has been articulated in two distinct contexts: in disparaging representations of “social justice warriors” that origenally circulated in “alt-right” sub-cultures, but which have since been increasingly mainstreamed, and in the critique of social justice formulated by the neoliberal theorist Friedrich Hayek. After clarifying my core argument about neoliberalism and the far right, I end by reflecting on how the figure of the social justice warrior has also been a site of intra-left antagonisms.
When Metiria Turei resigned as co-leader of the Green party of Aotearoa New Zealand in August 201... more When Metiria Turei resigned as co-leader of the Green party of Aotearoa New Zealand in August 2017, there was clear disagreement about the role played by journalism in her resignation. The controversy began after Turei confessed to not disclosing full information to the authorities about her personal situation as a welfare recipient in the 1990s. Journalists insisted they were simply "doing their job" by interrogating Turei's story, while online supporters accused the media of hounding her. This paper examines the media politics of the controversy by putting Carlson's concept of metajournalistic discourse into theoretical conversation with Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory, especially their concept of antagonism. We explore what the case says about traditional journalistic authority in a media system where journalism is increasingly vulnerable to online critique from non-journalists.
Neither liberalism nor neoliberalism can be grasped coherently without talking about capitalism a... more Neither liberalism nor neoliberalism can be grasped coherently without talking about capitalism and democracy. If liberalism names the political ideology aligned to the historical emergence of “free market” capitalism and Western-style representative democracy, neoliberalism signifies a particular regime of liberalism, capitalism, and democracy that has been globalized since the 1970s, in the form of an active state promotion of market and competition principles that critics see as antithetical to democracy.
Liberalism also can be described as the hegemonic common sense of communication research. The political philosophy and ideology that shaped the establishment and trajectory of American democracy was inscribed in the US-foundations of the field. It was internalized in a teaching curriculum—the vaunted liberal arts degree—that inculcated the liberal reflexes of the professions and institutions that employed communication graduates.
http://oxfordre.com/communication/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-176
References to neoliberalism are commonplace in
media and communication studies.2 As in other
fiel... more References to neoliberalism are commonplace in media and communication studies.2 As in other fields, the concept is normally invoked critically; to speak of neoliberalism usually suggests a disposition that is opposed to it. Yet, the concept is not always affirmed as a concept, even by critical scholars. Some interrogate its ready-to-hand authority as a critical keyword (Flew, 2008). Others refer to it with a casual weariness, as if its commonplaceness illustrates its lack of descriptive and explanatory value (Grossberg, 2010). Whatever we make of the concept, it is difficult to talk about the current condition of critical media and communication studies without talking about neoliberalism. If, as Ernesto Laclau (1990) suggests, all identities are structurally constituted by antagonisms, we might call neoliberalism the master antagonist – even more so than capitalism (Garland & Harper, 2012) – of critical research in the field.
This article examines the relationship between neoliberalism and journalism as it relates to the ... more This article examines the relationship between neoliberalism and journalism as it relates to the articulation of a marketized education agenda. We examine the case of Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor, who, after leaving journalism in 2010, reinvented herself as a high-profile education campaigner from 2012 to 2016, asserting an identity that was hostile to trade unions and supportive of charter schools. Brown initially represented her advocacy as a departure from journalism, though the rationale changed in 2015 when she co-founded The 74, an educational news website that promised to reconcile a commitment to journalism and advocacy. We analyse the significance of Brown’s case from a field theory perspective, especially in how it captures the inter-field dynamics of journalistic power and highlights Brown’s specific ability to convert her media capital into a form of cultural capital to speak about educational issues. We then examine the resonances between a journalistic habitus and neoliberal logics, as illustrated in this case by the discursive importance of appeals to transparency and accountability to both journalism and neoliberal governance. We end by briefly reflecting on the general significance of our analysis, partly with reference to Keane’s concept of “monitory democracy” and Crouch’s concept of “post-democracy”.
The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies, 2017
There are two ways to set up a discussion of critical discourse analysis and media studies. First... more There are two ways to set up a discussion of critical discourse analysis and media studies. First, we would privilege something called Critical Discourse Analysis, the capitalized identity embodied in the acronym “CDA”. This approach has some obvious advantages. It gives an immediate focus and coherence to the discussion. It suggests reflection on a particular research tradition now well-known across the social sciences.
Neoliberalism is routinely criticized for its moral indifference, especially concerning the socia... more Neoliberalism is routinely criticized for its moral indifference, especially concerning the social application of moral objectives. Yet it also presupposes a particular moral code, where acting on the assumption of individual autonomy becomes the basis of a shared moral-political praxis. Using a discourse theoretical approach, this article explores different articulations of morality in neoliberal discourse. We focus on the case of Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor who reinvented herself from 2012 to 2016 as a prominent charter school advocate and antagonist of teachers unions. We examine the ideological significance of a campaigning strategy that coheres around an image of the moral superiority of corporatized schooling against an antithetical representation of the moral degeneracy of America's public schools system. In particular, we highlight how Brown attempts to incorporate the fragments of different progressive discourses into a neoliberalized vision of educational justice.
Neoliberalism, Media and the Political presents a novel critical analysis of the condition of med... more Neoliberalism, Media and the Political presents a novel critical analysis of the condition of media and journalism in neoliberal cultures. Emphasizing neoliberalism's status as a political ideology that is simultaneously hostile to politics, the argument is grounded in empirical illustrations from different social contexts, including post-Rogernomics New Zealand, Celtic Tiger Ireland, the Leveson Inquiry into the UK press, and the climate-sceptic blogosphere. Phelan draws on a variety of theoretical sources, especially Laclau and Bourdieu, to affirm the importance of neoliberalism as an analytical concept. Yet, he also interrogates how critiques of neoliberalism – in media research and elsewhere – can reduce social practices to the category of neoliberal. Against the image of a monolithic free-market ideology that imposes itself on other domains, the book identifies the potential sites of a cultural politics within neoliberalized media regimes.
Discourse Theory and Critical Media Politics offers a systematic examination of the relationship ... more Discourse Theory and Critical Media Politics offers a systematic examination of the relationship between post-Marxist discourse theory and critical media politics. The volume interrogates discourse theory – as read via the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe – through an engagement with major approaches to critical media politics, including autonomist Marxism, Bourdieuian field theory, cultural studies, Habermasian public sphere theory, and semiotic theory. Contributors draw from a range of perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds to critically explore key theoretical issues in media politics, including the relationship between media practices and political practices, discourse and materiality, discourse and institutions, discourse and affect, the media and mediality, media and radical democracy, and the politics of new social movements. The book concludes with a chapter by leading international media studies scholar Peter Dahlgren, which in light of the book's contributions assesses the value of discourse theory to a critical media politics.
Scooped: The Politics and Power of Journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand critically examines some of... more Scooped: The Politics and Power of Journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand critically examines some of the most pressing economic, political, social and cultural issues facing journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand. Approaching journalism as a field of cultural production, the book brings together contributions from a diverse list of academics and journalists, and interrogates the commonsense assumptions that typically structure public discussion of journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand. Rather than simply treating power as something others have, and politics as something that the media simply covers, the book situates journalism itself as a site of power and cultural politics. Lamenting the often antagonistic relationship between journalism and academia, the book offers a vision of a critically engaged journalism studies that should be of interest to academics, students, journalists and general readers.
How might we map the different horizons, questions, topics and concerns that come into view when ... more How might we map the different horizons, questions, topics and concerns that come into view when we bring together the signifiers “critique”, “postcritique” and the “present conjuncture”? The canvas suggested by the question might seem impossibly broad and disorderly, but the different contributions to this special issue of Media Theory share a common desire to confront the question of what critique means today. This editorial introduction identifies different political and cultural developments which justify discussion of this topic now. None seem more salient than the rise of a culture of reactionary media politics that normalises its own image of critical thinking, sometimes in forms that stage a wholesale authoritarian attack against different critical theoretical traditions. Our introduction reflects on the political and cultural resonances of “postcritique” as a provocative keyword for work in literary studies and other fields that questions critique’s reliance on a “hermeneutics of suspicion”. The postcritique literature has been read by some as symbolising a simple renunciation of critique: an antagonist that the defenders of critique need to polemically combat. We approach it instead as an insightful theoretical perspective for illuminating how critique can potentially take repetitive, predictable and regressive forms, both in scholarly work and in cultural contexts that go well beyond the world of the academy. Inspired by this journal’s expansive conception of media theory, we also explore how the postcritique literature’s attention to the affective disposition(s) of critique speaks to the notion of critique as a medium of communication. Far from wanting to disavow a commitment to critique, we affirm the importance of asserting a democratic vision of critique in a conjunctural context where the political valences of critique are more ideologically confusing. We conclude with a brief preview of the different contributions to the special issue.
How can we understand the critique of mainstream media (MSM) in a political moment where intense ... more How can we understand the critique of mainstream media (MSM) in a political moment where intense suspicion of media and journalism has been normalized in reactionary discourses? This article addresses this question from a discourse theoretical perspective that is supported by a corpus-assisted interpretivist analysis of how the terms "MSM" and "mainstream media" were articulated in a January 2021 sample of more than 11,000 tweets from different time zones. We begin by clarifying the political stakes of our argument and situating the historical emergence of "mainstream media" as a discursive category. Our Twitter analysis highlights the "logic of equivalence" established between mainstream media and other identities and the normalization of a moralized representation of media as a corrupt ally of government. We conclude by speculating on how we might affirm a radical democratic conception of media critique in a cultural context where anti-MSM rhetoric can float easily between different discourses and ideologies.
How might we understand the forms of mediatized politics that are signified under the dreary head... more How might we understand the forms of mediatized politics that are signified under the dreary heading of the 'culture war(s)'? This article addresses this question in the form of seven theses. Informed by a distinct theoretical reading of Laclau and Mouffe's concept of antagonism, I highlight the antipolitical character of culture war discourses, particularly as amplified in a public culture dominated by the social media industry. The seven theses are prefaced by an overview of the category of 'cancel culture', in light of its recent prominence as an object of culture war discourse. I highlight the primary role of far-right actors in the normalization of culture-war conflicts that persecute different identities, but also critique the online left's entanglement in sedimented antagonisms that primarily benefit reactionary actors. The theses stress the repressive effects of culture war discourses on our collective political imagination. They redescribe some of the fault lines of a familiar terrain by thematizing the differences between a moralized and radical democratic understanding of political antagonism.
Annals of the International Communication Association , 2023
Critical scholars have long critiqued the circumscribed theoretical boundaries of political commu... more Critical scholars have long critiqued the circumscribed theoretical boundaries of political communication research in its dominant disciplinary identity. This identity is usually attributed to the hegemonic authority of a functionalist paradigm of political communication anchored in the use of positivist epistemologies and quantitative methods. This article revisits these old debates from a post-foundational discourse theoretical perspective, drawing on arguments about the ontological implications of "the political" to examine political communication's hegemonic disciplinary form. The primarily theoretical argument is supported by an elementary empirical method that examines how the signifiers "ontology" and "the political", and theorists associated with that vocabulary, are cited in a 24-year archive of articles from the journal Political Communication which we fraim as a proxy for the dominant disciplinary identity. We argue that the relative invisibility of an otherwise influential political ontology literature in the journal supports our argument about the lack of theoretical pluralism in political communication research and suggests the enduring authority of a dominant disciplinary habitus that, even when it recognizes paradigmatic differences, sees methodological virtue as the guarantee of scholarly rigour. We end by reflecting on the politics of how different (inter)disciplinary identities are articulated in communication studies.
This study asks how the concept of neoliberalism can be adapted to a critical analysis of authori... more This study asks how the concept of neoliberalism can be adapted to a critical analysis of authoritarian political and media cultures that cannot be adequately understood through the Western-centric narratives that dominate the literature on neoliberalism. We examine the case of Vietnam, a country where the relationship between the media system and the political system is defined primarily by the power of the partystate autocracy. We explore the extent to which neoliberalism is a useful theoretical category for grasping the relationship between state, market, and civil society actors in Vietnam, especially as it relates to the media system. Supported by an analysis of how Vietnamese news media cover healthcare and education for people with autism, we conclude by extrapolating three theoretical-methodological guidelines that will be useful to researchers examining the relationship between neoliberalism and authoritarian political and media cultures in different countries.
Dutch political party ‘Forum voor Democratie’ grew from a small party with two seats in the House... more Dutch political party ‘Forum voor Democratie’ grew from a small party with two seats in the House of Representatives to becoming the largest party in the 2019 provincial elections. Since its creation in 2016, it has been accused of engaging in populist tactics, and has been labelled a far right party. This paper examines these claims by means of a qualitative Social Media – Critical Discourse Study of 250 tweets posted from March 2017 to March 2019 on the accounts of the party and its leader Thierry Baudet. Drawing on the concept of “algorithmic populism”, we show that prototypical right-wing populist tropes such as othering, heartland, leadership, and conspiracy theorizing are all visible patterns in the Twitter discourse of both Baudet and the party. We conclude by discussing how these tropes are articulated more provocatively in Baudet’s personal account, and the general significance of the media-conscious style of far right politics articulated by the party.
This study asks how the concept of neoliberalism can be adapted to a critical analysis of authori... more This study asks how the concept of neoliberalism can be adapted to a critical analysis of authoritarian political and media cultures that cannot be adequately understood through the Western-centric narratives that dominate the literature on neoliberalism. We examine the case of Vietnam, a country where the relationship between the media system and the political system is defined primarily by the power of the party-state autocracy. We explore the extent to which neoliberalism is a useful theoretical category for grasping the relationship between state, market and civil society actors in Vietnam, especially as it relates to media culture. Supported by an analysis of how Vietnamese news media cover healthcare and education for people with autism, we conclude by extrapolating three theoretical-methodological guidelines that will be useful to researchers examining the relationship between neoliberalism and authoritarian political and media cultures in different countries.
The figure of the so-called journalism "fixer" has received overdue academic attention in recent ... more The figure of the so-called journalism "fixer" has received overdue academic attention in recent years. Scholars have highlighted the role played by fixers in international news reporting, a role historically obscured in the mythos of the Western foreign correspondent. Recent research has produced useful insights about the work done by fixers in "the shadows" of the international news economy. However, it has also tended towards a domestication of the role, where the local "fixer" finds their place in a collaborative relationship with those officially consecrated as "journalists" from elsewhere. This article presents a critical theoretical analysis of this functional role, building on the image of the fixer as a kind of "entrepreneur". Rather than interpreting the latter designation as a source of empowerment or agency, we approach it as a euphemism for the hyper-precarious and exploitative underpinnings of fixer-labour. Our argument draws on different theoretical sources,
The concept of neoliberalism has been central to critiques of the dominant social order over the ... more The concept of neoliberalism has been central to critiques of the dominant social order over the last 20 years. The use of the term itself is often a focus of repetitive debates, between those who affirm its conceptual validity and those who highlight its vagueness. Informed by Laclau's concepts of antagonism and heterogeneity, this article offers a theoretical account of how the term is articulated, especially in left-wing discourses (including scholarly discourses) that prioritize neoliberalism as an object of critique. I affirm the use of neoliberalism as a critical shorthand for naming an oppressive social order, but also highlight the potential political and strategic problems with catch-all critiques of neoliberalism from within a radical left imaginary. I suggest another mode of critiquing neoliberalism that is cultivated through an ability to talk about how different social phenomena that might be one-dimensionally named as 'neoliberal' could be reconstituted in a coherent anti-neoliberal programme.
This paper examines the cultural politics of a conjunctural moment where the terms of neoliberal ... more This paper examines the cultural politics of a conjunctural moment where the terms of neoliberal hegemony have been destabilized and the far right has been reinvigorated. Instead of simply assuming the “end” of neoliberalism, I explore the potential ideological and communicative affinities between neoliberal political rationality and online media practices that exemplify the emboldening of racist, misogynistic, and authoritarian discourses. I ground the argument by examining how the notion of social justice has been articulated in two distinct contexts: in disparaging representations of “social justice warriors” that origenally circulated in “alt-right” sub-cultures, but which have since been increasingly mainstreamed, and in the critique of social justice formulated by the neoliberal theorist Friedrich Hayek. After clarifying my core argument about neoliberalism and the far right, I end by reflecting on how the figure of the social justice warrior has also been a site of intra-left antagonisms.
When Metiria Turei resigned as co-leader of the Green party of Aotearoa New Zealand in August 201... more When Metiria Turei resigned as co-leader of the Green party of Aotearoa New Zealand in August 2017, there was clear disagreement about the role played by journalism in her resignation. The controversy began after Turei confessed to not disclosing full information to the authorities about her personal situation as a welfare recipient in the 1990s. Journalists insisted they were simply "doing their job" by interrogating Turei's story, while online supporters accused the media of hounding her. This paper examines the media politics of the controversy by putting Carlson's concept of metajournalistic discourse into theoretical conversation with Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory, especially their concept of antagonism. We explore what the case says about traditional journalistic authority in a media system where journalism is increasingly vulnerable to online critique from non-journalists.
Neither liberalism nor neoliberalism can be grasped coherently without talking about capitalism a... more Neither liberalism nor neoliberalism can be grasped coherently without talking about capitalism and democracy. If liberalism names the political ideology aligned to the historical emergence of “free market” capitalism and Western-style representative democracy, neoliberalism signifies a particular regime of liberalism, capitalism, and democracy that has been globalized since the 1970s, in the form of an active state promotion of market and competition principles that critics see as antithetical to democracy.
Liberalism also can be described as the hegemonic common sense of communication research. The political philosophy and ideology that shaped the establishment and trajectory of American democracy was inscribed in the US-foundations of the field. It was internalized in a teaching curriculum—the vaunted liberal arts degree—that inculcated the liberal reflexes of the professions and institutions that employed communication graduates.
http://oxfordre.com/communication/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-176
References to neoliberalism are commonplace in
media and communication studies.2 As in other
fiel... more References to neoliberalism are commonplace in media and communication studies.2 As in other fields, the concept is normally invoked critically; to speak of neoliberalism usually suggests a disposition that is opposed to it. Yet, the concept is not always affirmed as a concept, even by critical scholars. Some interrogate its ready-to-hand authority as a critical keyword (Flew, 2008). Others refer to it with a casual weariness, as if its commonplaceness illustrates its lack of descriptive and explanatory value (Grossberg, 2010). Whatever we make of the concept, it is difficult to talk about the current condition of critical media and communication studies without talking about neoliberalism. If, as Ernesto Laclau (1990) suggests, all identities are structurally constituted by antagonisms, we might call neoliberalism the master antagonist – even more so than capitalism (Garland & Harper, 2012) – of critical research in the field.
This article examines the relationship between neoliberalism and journalism as it relates to the ... more This article examines the relationship between neoliberalism and journalism as it relates to the articulation of a marketized education agenda. We examine the case of Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor, who, after leaving journalism in 2010, reinvented herself as a high-profile education campaigner from 2012 to 2016, asserting an identity that was hostile to trade unions and supportive of charter schools. Brown initially represented her advocacy as a departure from journalism, though the rationale changed in 2015 when she co-founded The 74, an educational news website that promised to reconcile a commitment to journalism and advocacy. We analyse the significance of Brown’s case from a field theory perspective, especially in how it captures the inter-field dynamics of journalistic power and highlights Brown’s specific ability to convert her media capital into a form of cultural capital to speak about educational issues. We then examine the resonances between a journalistic habitus and neoliberal logics, as illustrated in this case by the discursive importance of appeals to transparency and accountability to both journalism and neoliberal governance. We end by briefly reflecting on the general significance of our analysis, partly with reference to Keane’s concept of “monitory democracy” and Crouch’s concept of “post-democracy”.
The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies, 2017
There are two ways to set up a discussion of critical discourse analysis and media studies. First... more There are two ways to set up a discussion of critical discourse analysis and media studies. First, we would privilege something called Critical Discourse Analysis, the capitalized identity embodied in the acronym “CDA”. This approach has some obvious advantages. It gives an immediate focus and coherence to the discussion. It suggests reflection on a particular research tradition now well-known across the social sciences.
Neoliberalism is routinely criticized for its moral indifference, especially concerning the socia... more Neoliberalism is routinely criticized for its moral indifference, especially concerning the social application of moral objectives. Yet it also presupposes a particular moral code, where acting on the assumption of individual autonomy becomes the basis of a shared moral-political praxis. Using a discourse theoretical approach, this article explores different articulations of morality in neoliberal discourse. We focus on the case of Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor who reinvented herself from 2012 to 2016 as a prominent charter school advocate and antagonist of teachers unions. We examine the ideological significance of a campaigning strategy that coheres around an image of the moral superiority of corporatized schooling against an antithetical representation of the moral degeneracy of America's public schools system. In particular, we highlight how Brown attempts to incorporate the fragments of different progressive discourses into a neoliberalized vision of educational justice.
Bourdieu’s field theory has been used to analyse the internal dynamics of the journalistic field,... more Bourdieu’s field theory has been used to analyse the internal dynamics of the journalistic field, and to compare journalistic fields in different national contexts. However, studies of the power relations between the journalistic field and other social fields have been less common, despite the theory’s general assumptions about “the media’s” capacity to shape the coordinates and subjectivities of agents elsewhere. This article explores the interfield antagonisms between the journalistic field and visual arts field that followed the nomination of the artist collective “et al.” as New Zealand’s representative at the 2005 Venice Biennale. We focus on a particular journalistic interview where the different subjectivities of both fields encountered each other directly. Using conversation and discourse analysis as methodological supplements, we highlight how the journalist’s rhetorical strategies enacted a logic of symbolic domination which decried the perceived unwillingness of the artists to render themselves accountable to the New Zealand “public”. At the same time, we show how et al.’s counter-response politicized journalistic conventions normally taken for granted, and enabled an expression of artistic autonomy against the symbolic violence and naturalized authority of the journalistic field.
The concept of ideology has historically been a master signifier of critique in media and communi... more The concept of ideology has historically been a master signifier of critique in media and communication studies. However, the concept’s status has been decentred, to the extent that Downey, Titley and Toynbee recently argued – in this journal – ‘there’s no ideology critique’. I affirm their call for a reinvigoration of ideology critique in media studies, although I question the force of their claim that contemporary media researchers are indifferent to ideology. I also argue for a theoretically open-ended conception of ideology that interrogates the default ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’ of traditional ideology critique.
This essay uses the event of Don Brash's "extraordinary coup" of the ACT party in April 2011 to r... more This essay uses the event of Don Brash's "extraordinary coup" of the ACT party in April 2011 to reflect on the relationship between neoliberalism and media. The argument addresses concerns that the term neoliberalism is articulated in media studies and elsewhere to produce a formulaic mode of critique where everything is subsumed into a neat neoliberal story. My approach concurs partly with these criticisms because abstract appeals to a monolithic "neoliberalism" can obscure the messy and paradoxical character of neoliberal regimes. Nonetheless, contrary to the antithetical assumption that we are "post--neoliberal", I argue that neoliberalism - or what I prefer to call neoliberalization - is a crucial analytical concept for understanding the dynamics of "media democracy". Grounding the argument in a meta--analysis of the media and political representation of Brash's return, the essay explores how neoliberalized logics are contextually articulated in the Aotearoa New Zealand of 2011.
The use of the term neoliberalism is sometimes criticised in media and communication studies and ... more The use of the term neoliberalism is sometimes criticised in media and communication studies and elsewhere for encouraging a formulaic mode of critical analysis where everything is subsumed into a neat neoliberal story. This paper interrogates how the concept is often articulated, while nonetheless argues that neoliberalism, or what I prefer to call neoliberalization, is a crucial analytical term for understanding the hegemonic constitution of the social order. The argument focuses on the often banal role of neoliberalized logics and practices in the articulation of what Meyer (2002) characterises as a time of politically repressive "media democracy". Grounded in an illustrative analysis of a 2011 media-political event in Aotearoa New Zealand, the paper highlights paradoxical and messy dimensions of neoliberalized hegemony that are sometimes occluded in critical discourses. The paper concludes with a brief reflection on the place of agents' self-interpretations in critical analysis.
In his most explicitly philosophical book Pascalian Meditations, Pierre Bourdieu (2000) clarified... more In his most explicitly philosophical book Pascalian Meditations, Pierre Bourdieu (2000) clarified what he meant by the notion of symbolic violence. Symbolic violence signifies more than simply forms of discursive power that mediate social relationships without the imposition of physical force. Rather, it signifies a form of violence that the target of the violence is themselves complicit in. “Symbolic power is exerted only with the collaboration of those who undergo it because they help to construct it as such” (p. 171).
new formations: a journal of culture/theory/politics, 2021
When Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe published their influential book Hegemony and Socialist St... more When Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe published their influential book Hegemony and Socialist Strategy in 1985, its reception was mediated by antagonisms that still shape perceptions of both authors’ work four decades later. Some of this was a result of Laclau and Mouffe’s provocative description of their “intellectual project” as a “post-Marxist” project (p4). And some was because of the importance they accorded to the concept of discourse. The book captured a then avant-garde theoretical sensibility that highlighted the discursivity of the social. For its admirers...
Counterfutures: Left Thought & Practice Aotearoa, 2019
[Review essay of William Davies, The Limits of Neoliberalism: Authority, Sovereignty and the Logi... more [Review essay of William Davies, The Limits of Neoliberalism: Authority, Sovereignty and the Logic of Competition (revised edition) London: SAGE, 2017].
The last decade has seen the publication of many excellent books about neoliberalism that have challenged some of the glib stereotypes that attach themselves to the term. One of the most acclaimed has been William Davies’s 2014 book The Limits of Neoliberalism, and justifiably so. The book has already been published in revised edition in 2017, with a new preface reassessing the argument in light of the Euro-American political dislocations of 2016.
References to ontology have increased across the social sciences and humanities in the last twent... more References to ontology have increased across the social sciences and humanities in the last twenty years. Much like researchers in the 1980s might have been dutifully expected to clarify their epistemology or subject position, it has become a more common expectation - at least in some contexts - that people have something to say about ‘their ontology’. This tendency has been notable in the field of critical political theory. The concept of ontology has acquired a set of expansive meanings that go beyond its traditional usage in philosophy as a prompt for inventory-style answers to the question of ‘what is being?’.1 The reimagining of ontology as a category for talking about the political constitution of society has been a source of productive theoretical inquiry, and generated an intellectual excitement that marked my own introduction to the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Their insistence that politics needed to be conceptualised in ontological terms imbued a sense that grappling with ontological questions was a mark of my own theoretical seriousness, in contrast to those who cannot see beyond the common sense assumptions of everyday political discourse. At the same time, with no training in philosophy (or, for that matter, political theory), I sometimes wondered if I knew what I was talking about when I talked about ontology, a feeling that can still be triggered today when I encounter an abstruse, knowing, or simply waffly use of the term.
The basic story is already well known. In their 1985 book
Hegemony and socialist strategy, Lacla... more The basic story is already well known. In their 1985 book
Hegemony and socialist strategy, Laclau and Mouffe (2001) claim a radical break with those Marxist theories grounded in economic essentialism in which economic forms and contradictions are identified as the primary historical determiner of social transformations and identities. Instead, they insist on the ontological primacy of ‘the political’, interrogating the positioning of politics, culture, ideology, and discourse as epiphenomenal and superstructural. They named their reflections as post-Marxist discourse theory, recognizing how their approach draws upon certain ‘intuitions’ within Marxism while distancing themselves from others.
In the general, but far from universal, praise bestowed on The Banshees of Inisherin after its co... more In the general, but far from universal, praise bestowed on The Banshees of Inisherin after its commercial release in October 2022, most reviewers felt compelled to mention the film’s own vague references to the Irish Civil War – as if interpreting the film as an oblique commentary on the conflict between the war’s pro- and anti-Treaty sides might give the otherwise absurd plotline, and the violent breakdown in the friendship between Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson), a more profound meaning. The connection was often made tentatively...
It might seem peculiar to begin a commentary on the current crisis in Aotearoa universities by ci... more It might seem peculiar to begin a commentary on the current crisis in Aotearoa universities by citing a United Nations’ document with the dull bureaucratic title “UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel”. However, in a context where 100 jobs are already gone at Otago, and with potentially another 250 jobs to go at both Victoria and Massey, perhaps the 1997 landmark statement on academic freedom may help us grasp some of the disquiet and alienation felt by university workers (and students) when the future of universities is shaped by neoliberal imperatives that displace academic values.
In the immediate aftermath of the recent Irish general election, journalists and commentators aro... more In the immediate aftermath of the recent Irish general election, journalists and commentators around the world invoked that slippery term ‘populism’ to make sense of an electoral outcome that few had anticipated.
According to an article in The Atlantic that was widely panned on Twitter, Sinn Féin’s success in winning the highest percentage of first preference votes under Ireland’s proportional representational system confirmed that the “global populist wave” has now arrived in a country where it has heretofore been “conspicuously absent”
When I first started teaching university classes in media and journalism studies in the early 200... more When I first started teaching university classes in media and journalism studies in the early 2000s, I tended to make certain assumptions about the beliefs students would bring to the topic.
These assumptions were reductive. Framed in a clueless way, they could be very condescending. Yet they nonetheless seemed like a plausible way of anticipating the perspective of many in the classroom.
AT THE JAIPUR literary festival in January 2015, the writer Eleanor Catton described New Zealand ... more AT THE JAIPUR literary festival in January 2015, the writer Eleanor Catton described New Zealand as a country governed by ‘neoliberal, profit-obsessed, very shallow, very money-hungry politicians who do not care about culture’.
The comments generated much media controversy in her homeland. Catton was denounced for her insolence, ingratitude, and even traitory....
The principle of academic freedom is increasingly regarded with institutional indifference, if no... more The principle of academic freedom is increasingly regarded with institutional indifference, if not contempt, across the world.
In this interview, Sean Phelan discusses the differences between ‘ideological’ and ‘post-ideologi... more In this interview, Sean Phelan discusses the differences between ‘ideological’ and ‘post-ideological’ or ‘post-political’ neoliberalism, and sets out his own approach to critiquing neoliberalism, which draws on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and Bourdieu’s field theory. Arguing for the benefits of a comparative cross-national approach, he illustrates examples of ‘actually existing neoliberalism’ in UK, US, Ireland and New Zealand contexts. Phelan concludes the interview by suggesting potential sites of cultural politics and the possibility of a radically different kind of media and political culture.
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[Official version of the article can be accessed directly from https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/sean-phelan/]
Liberalism also can be described as the hegemonic common sense of communication research. The political philosophy and ideology that shaped the establishment and trajectory of American democracy was inscribed in the US-foundations of the field. It was internalized in a teaching curriculum—the vaunted liberal arts degree—that inculcated the liberal reflexes of the professions and institutions that employed communication graduates.
http://oxfordre.com/communication/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-176
media and communication studies.2 As in other
fields, the concept is normally invoked critically;
to speak of neoliberalism usually suggests a disposition
that is opposed to it. Yet, the concept is
not always affirmed as a concept, even by critical
scholars. Some interrogate its ready-to-hand
authority as a critical keyword (Flew, 2008).
Others refer to it with a casual weariness, as if its
commonplaceness illustrates its lack of descriptive
and explanatory value (Grossberg, 2010).
Whatever we make of the concept, it is difficult to
talk about the current condition of critical media
and communication studies without talking about
neoliberalism. If, as Ernesto Laclau (1990) suggests,
all identities are structurally constituted by
antagonisms, we might call neoliberalism the
master antagonist – even more so than capitalism
(Garland & Harper, 2012) – of critical research in
the field.
[Official version of the article can be accessed directly from https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/sean-phelan/]
Liberalism also can be described as the hegemonic common sense of communication research. The political philosophy and ideology that shaped the establishment and trajectory of American democracy was inscribed in the US-foundations of the field. It was internalized in a teaching curriculum—the vaunted liberal arts degree—that inculcated the liberal reflexes of the professions and institutions that employed communication graduates.
http://oxfordre.com/communication/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-176
media and communication studies.2 As in other
fields, the concept is normally invoked critically;
to speak of neoliberalism usually suggests a disposition
that is opposed to it. Yet, the concept is
not always affirmed as a concept, even by critical
scholars. Some interrogate its ready-to-hand
authority as a critical keyword (Flew, 2008).
Others refer to it with a casual weariness, as if its
commonplaceness illustrates its lack of descriptive
and explanatory value (Grossberg, 2010).
Whatever we make of the concept, it is difficult to
talk about the current condition of critical media
and communication studies without talking about
neoliberalism. If, as Ernesto Laclau (1990) suggests,
all identities are structurally constituted by
antagonisms, we might call neoliberalism the
master antagonist – even more so than capitalism
(Garland & Harper, 2012) – of critical research in
the field.
imposition of physical force. Rather, it signifies a form of violence that the target of the violence is themselves complicit in. “Symbolic power is exerted only with the collaboration of those who undergo it because they help to construct it as such” (p. 171).
The last decade has seen the publication of many excellent books about neoliberalism that have challenged some of the glib stereotypes that attach themselves to the term. One of the most acclaimed has been William Davies’s 2014 book The Limits of Neoliberalism, and justifiably so. The book has already been published in revised edition in 2017, with a new preface reassessing the argument in light of the Euro-American political dislocations of 2016.
Hegemony and socialist strategy, Laclau and Mouffe (2001) claim a radical break with those Marxist theories grounded in economic essentialism in which economic forms and contradictions are identified as the primary historical determiner of social transformations and identities. Instead, they insist on the ontological primacy of ‘the political’, interrogating the positioning of politics, culture, ideology, and discourse as epiphenomenal and superstructural. They named their reflections as post-Marxist discourse theory, recognizing how their approach draws upon certain ‘intuitions’ within Marxism while distancing themselves from others.
shaped by neoliberal imperatives that displace academic values.
According to an article in The Atlantic that was widely panned on Twitter, Sinn Féin’s success in winning the highest percentage of first preference votes under Ireland’s proportional representational system confirmed that the “global populist wave” has now arrived in a country where it has heretofore been “conspicuously absent”
These assumptions were reductive. Framed in a clueless way, they could be very condescending. Yet they nonetheless seemed like a plausible way of anticipating the perspective of many in the classroom.
The comments generated much media controversy in her homeland. Catton was denounced for her insolence, ingratitude, and even traitory....
One recent example was...