Political Communication Without Standards: How Toxic Narratives Undermine Institutional Transparency
‘Zaevism’, ‘Artanoid’, ‘Zmicko’, ‘Vmroids’, ‘Northijistan’, ‘Vassals’, ‘Pawns’, ‘Casinoman’ and a spectrum of other words echoed in the pre-election period from the party megaphones. Aiming to offend the political opponent as much as possible, these and other language innovations were quickly accepted by the party membership who spread them on social networks and were uncritically broadcast by the media, thus becoming normalized in the public discourse. The nine-month research conducted by the Institute of Communication Studies (ICS), Determining Political Harmful Narratives (HARM-TIVE), showed that politicians are the ones who use the toxic narrative the most. The most frequent is the rhetoric with which they undermine trust in institutions (in 37% of posts with harmful narratives), biased selection of data (30%), and character attacks or demonizing opponents (9%). The research also showed that the media, which were also under the scrutiny of the Institute, uncritically and one-sidedly broadcast the harmful narratives, without any intervention. The highest amplitudes of harmful rhetoric coincide with periods of intense political events, or as in the case of the ICS research – in December 2023, that is, the month before the formation of the Caretaker Government, and in April 2024, the month when the presidential and parliamentary elections campaigns were launched. The research showed that the political arena and struggle for power contradict the accepted standards of political communication based on evidence, truthfulness and tolerance for different opinions.
Such rhetoric of division, encouragement of scepticism, reinforcement of populism, ethnocentrism, according to Zaneta Trajkoska, the Director of ICS, have serious consequences for democracy and decisions that citizens make.
The lack of clear rules for political advertising in online media was also noted by the OSCE-ODIHR Mission – which also monitored the pre-election political rhetoric and the ‘critical tone’.
The toxic rhetoric by politicians that pollutes the media space is not exclusive to Macedonia. From a European perspective also, the paradox is confirmed that in fact the politicians who have the obligation to create an environment of free media are the ones who first pollute the information sphere and limit the work of journalists. This affects the degree of democracy which cannot exist without free media and undermines trust in both institutions and media. The goal of reaching decent communication and for citizens to receive relevant information and accountability from the institutions becomes even more complex due to tech companies that give priority to the economic and not to the public interest and the insufficient proactivity of the citizens, above all the young people who should insist on greater transparency and to actively participate in decision-making, which in turn imposes the need for civic literacy.
In addition to the responsibility of politicians and the media, responsibility is also needed from the citizens themselves. Alenka Jelen from the University of Stirling, Scotland calls for civic proactivity, involvement in debates, care for others and reconsidering one’s actions instead of having high expectations from politicians, who spread disinformation, misinformation and break promises.
Although all the principles of openness, accountability and transparency, professionalism, honesty, truthfulness are part of the ethical codes in public relations of anyone engaged in public activity, they are respected only as long as they do not conflict with the interests of the client. Such examples are the Trump campaign and the campaign led by advocates of the idea of the United Kingdom leaving the Union – campaigns that achieved the goal despite breaking several rules and election law.
When media are (not) trustworthy
The toxic narrative by politicians, which media convey and reinforce, has had the effect of reducing trust in them. The trend, which has been going on for a whole decade, is most prevalent in countries with an illiberal system in Eastern, Southern Europe and the United States.
One of the symptoms of illiberal media systems, such as Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Serbia showed that the distinct polarization in these countries led to the disappearance of neutral media (the exception is the Czech Republic where there is a lower level of polarization). Dominating are media that report uncritically and with strong support for the current government. Instead of being an instrument of democracy, they become tools for spreading the illiberal views of the establishment. According to Professor of Communication and Media Vaclav Štetka from Loughborough University, UK, a much bigger problem than the reduced trust in media is that media are actually no longer trustworthy.
The process of returning the media to their real mission, representing the public interest, will take a long time, Štetka assesses. But the crisis of trust in the media is really felt everywhere. Young people are “informed” by influencers and tiktokers, and TV shows have been reduced to spreading violence and verbal clashes. Media have become mute broadcasters of news that has no informational value to be published.
A journalist who advocates the model of constructive journalism Kurt Strand from Aarhus, Denmark says that the most important task of journalists is to stick to the facts and the truth. ‘Alternative facts’ are not acceptable.
One of the solutions for getting out of the crisis in journalism and restoring the lost trust, is the constructive journalism that has been already practiced in the Scandinavian countries – journalism that is critical but at the same time seeks and offers solutions for the topic it addresses. It does not encourage debate, but a dialogue to find solutions. According to Strand, experience so far shows that this type of journalism is attractive and acceptable to the young audience as well.
Government transparency – promises of accountability and responsibility should begin delivery
The perception of government transparency is different among some journalists and among government officials. While the Government Spokeswoman, Marija Miteva, who recently took office, promises that a false image of accountability will not be created, but transparency will be essential, the experience of journalist Frosina Dimeska from Prisma is not very positive. According to Dimeska, the new Government has ended certain good practices of transparent operation – the agenda of the cabinet meetings is no longer published, there are no published records after their completion, in certain cases you have to wait for months for an answer to a question, and sometimes instead of answers, explanations are sent as to why a public interest request was denied. Because of this, journalists are becoming bulletin boards of party press releases and politicians dictate the topics.
The Prime Minister says that transparency is not a one-way street and considers that the new Government has already offered a new way of operation in the area of openness.
The Spokeswoman of the Government, Miteva, announced changes to the previous government’s style of operation, when citizens were excluded from the process of making important political decisions, and instead of financial openness, private contracts were practiced. This style of governance influenced the decline in trust in the institutions and the system. AJM insists on responsible and professional journalism, but they emphasize that it depends on the environment created by those in power.
In the era of post-truth, the greatest victim is trust – to institutions, the media, to politicians. All of them should work openly, responsibly and professionally so that transparency and accountability do not remain incomprehensible bureaucratic words on paper and to achieve greater awareness and involvement of citizens in the decisions that affect them. Daniel Fieller, Chargé d’affaires, British Embassy Skopje, emphasized the importance of an open political dialogue between the government, media, civil society and the public. In this context, he emphasized the need for free and independent media that will publish credible and verifiable information, and the attitude of politicians towards them will be one of trust and respect.
The conference Driving Institutional Accountability through Open Political Communication, was organised by the ICS for the third year in a row with the aim of encouraging debate on the importance of institutional transparency, as part of the Use Facts project, supported by the British Embassy Skopje.
Journalist: Sonja Petrushevska
Camera operators: Ivan Popovich, Ljubomir Domazetov
Editor: Risto Dushkovski