Media criticism as a propaganda strategy in political communication

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Open Access

|Jun 2023

Figures & Tables

Media type	Right-wing populist	Liberal/Conservative	Left/Green	All parties
Public service	50.0	62.1	46.2	58.9
Press	28.6	20.1	38.5	23.3
Media in general	16.7	14.9	7.7	14.4
Commercial TV/radio	4.8	2.9	7.7	3.5
Total	100	100	100	100
N	42	147	13	202

Party type	Party	Engagements	Engagements (%)	Mean	Median	% of N	Max
Right-wing populist	Independent	1,087	9	271.8	258.5	9.5	482
	Sweden Democrats	11,012	91	289.8	65.0	90.5	1393
	Total	12,099	100	288.1	112.0	100	1393
Liberal/Conservative	Centre Party	153	0.7	21.9	4.0	4.8	79
	Christian Democrats	272	1.2	54.4	29.0	3.4	200
	Liberal Party	459	2	91.8	30.0	3.4	378
	Moderate Party	22,460	96.2	172.8	14.5	88.4	8287
	Total	23,344	100	158.8	15.0	100	8287
Left/Green	Green Party	7	1.3	7.00	7.0	7.7	7
	Social Democrats	405	76	57.9	5.0	53.8	364
	Left Party	121	22.7	24.2	32.0	38.5	36
	Total	533	100	41	7.0	100	364

Party	A. Media-critical tweets (n)	B. Media-critical tweets (% within party)	C. Media-critical tweets (% of total)	D. Total tweets (N)
Sweden Democrats	38	20.5	18.8	185
Moderate Party	130	15.0	64.4	869
Independent	4	12.1	2	33
Christian Democrats	5	8.3	2.5	60
Centre Party	7	4.7	3.5	148
Liberal Party	5	2.7	2.5	183
Left Party	5	2.2	2.5	226
Social Democrats	7	1.5	3.5	480
Green Party	1	0.7	0.5	146
All parties	202	8.7	100	2,330

Party	A. Media-critical MPs	B. MPs on Twitter*	C. Top media critics	D. Top media critics (% of total)
Sweden Democrats	7	14	Martin Kinnunen (12)	5.9
Moderate Party	18	47	Lars Beckman (94)	46.5
Independent	1	3	Jeff Ahl (4)	2.0
Christian Democrats	3	11	Caroline Szyber (3)	1.5
Centre Party	3	11	Staffan Danielsson (5)	2.5
Liberal Party	3	12	Mathias Sundin (3)	1.5
Left Party	3	10	Ali Esbati/Karin Rågsjö (2)	1.0
Social Democrats	6	37	Annika Strandhäll (2)	1.0
Green Party	1	13	Anders Schröder (1)	0.5

	Right-wing populist (n = 42)	Liberal/Conservative (n = 147)	Left/Green (n = 13)	All parties (n = 202)
Political bias	64.3	54.4	7.7	53.5
Name calling	35.7	32.0	7.7	31.2
Deceptive framing	19.0	18.4	38.5	19.8
News values and ethics	9.5	13.6	23.1	13.4
Inaccuracy	4.8	6.8	23.1	7.4
Ideological criticism	2.4	6.1	23.1	6.4
Systemic criticism	0.0	0.7	0.0	0.5

Party	Tweeting MPs	Tweeting MPs (%)	Seats in parliament	Seats in parliament 2014–2018 (%)	Difference (+/- %)	Tweets (n)
Moderate Party	47	30.3	84	24.1	+6.2	869
Social Democrats	37	23.9	113	32.4	-8.5	480
Sweden Democrats	11	7.1	46	13.2	-6.1	185
Green Party	13	8.4	25	7.2	+1.2	146
Liberal Party	12	7.7	19	5.4	+2.3	183
Centre Party	11	7.1	22	6.3	+0.9	148
Christian Democrats	11	7.1	16	4.6	+2.5	60
Left Party	10	6.5	21	6	+0.5	226
Independent	3	1.9	3	0.9	+1.0	33
All parties	155	100	349	100	n.a.	2330