The Illiberal Public Sphere

Media in Polarized Societies

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

12:00 - 13:00 PM (EDT)

18:00 - 19:00 (CEST)

Online

(a zoom link will be provided upon registration)

This event is on-the-record and open to the public and media.

This open access book provides the first systematic analysis of the role of the media in the rise of illiberalism, based on an original theoretical framework and extensive empirical research in Eastern Europe – a region that serves as a key battleground in the global advance of illiberalism. Liberal democracies across the world are facing a range of challenges, from the growing influence of illiberal leaders and parties to deepening polarization and declining trust in political elites and mainstream media. Although these developments attracted significant scholarly attention, the factors that contribute to the spreading of illiberalism remain poorly understood, and the communication perspective on illiberalism is particularly underdeveloped.

Štětka and Mihelj address this gap by introducing the concept of the illiberal public sphere, identifying the key stages in its development, and explaining what makes illiberalism distinct from related phenomena such as populism. Their analysis reveals how and why the changing communication environment facilitates selective exposure to ideologically and politically homogeneous sources, fosters changes in normative assumptions that guide media trust, increases vulnerability to disinformation, and goes hand in hand with growing hostility to immigration and LGBTQ+ rights. The findings challenge widespread assumptions about digital platforms as key channels of illiberalism and suggest that their role shifts as the illiberal sphere progresses.The arguments presented in this book have important implications for future research on challenges to liberal democracy, as well as for journalists, media regulators and other professionals committed to rebuilding media trust and containing the forces of polarization.

Speakers

Václav Štětka is Reader in Comparative Political Communication at Loughborough University. His research sits at the crossroads between media and democracy, exploring the role of media in the rise of polarization, populism and illiberalism, as well as contemporary challenges to media freedom and pluralism, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. He has been long-term contributor to several international research projects and networks, including Digital News Report (University of Oxford) or Media Pluralism Monitor (European University Institute, Florence). He is the author of The Illiberal Public Sphere: Media in Polarized Societies (Palgrave, 2024, with S.Mihlej), and editor of Social Media and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe (Routledge, with P. Surowiec). His most recent project, funded by the UKRI, concerns the perception and impact of Russian disinformation in Eastern Europe (2025).

Sabina Mihelj is Professor of Media and Cultural Analysis at Loughborough University. Her research examines the interaction between media, politics, and culture, especially in the context of semi-democratic, authoritarian, and post-authoritarian countries. Having made key contributions to debates on media and nationalism and Cold War media and culture, her recent work investigates current threats to democracy, with a particular focus on disinformation and the role of media in the rise of illiberalism and the contemporary ‘culture wars’. She is the author of several books and journal articles on media, politics, and culture, including Media Nations: Communicating Belonging and Exclusion in the Modern World (Palgrave, 2011), From Media Systems to Media Cultures: Understanding Socialist Television, (Cambridge University Press, 2018, with S. Huxtable) and The Illiberal Public Sphere: Media in Polarized Societies (Palgrave, 2024, with V. Štětka).

Moderator

Marlene Laruelle is Research Professor of International Affairs and Political Science and Director of the Illiberalism Studies Program at the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. Laruelle works on the rise of populist and illiberal movements in post-Soviet Eurasia, Europe and the US. She is the former Director of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES) and of the Central Asia Program (CAP).