Abstract
This paper investigates the dynamic relationship between hybrid media and hybrid politics in Lebanon and Tunisia. While previous research on the media in hybrid regimes has mainly focused on regime strategies of restricting and manipulating public debate, our analysis moves beyond repression. We argue that the ambiguities of hybrid politics, which combines democratic and authoritarian elements, not only constrain independent and critical reporting but also open up opportunities for journalistic agencies. We draw on Schedler's concept of informational uncertainty to capture the epistemological instability of hybrid regimes and the strategies of political actors to control public knowledge. Distinguishing between three dimensions of media hybridity - economic, cultural and technological - we show how the new hybrid media environment significantly increases the volatility of hybrid politics and informational uncertainty for political actors. Our empirical analysis is based on seventy-one semistructured interviews with journalists in Lebanon and Tunisia conducted between 2016 and 2019. The material reveals a broad range of strategies used by journalists who employ the internal contradictions of hybrid politics to pursue their own agenda. The comparison between Lebanon and Tunisia also highlights contextual conditions that enable, or limit, journalistic agency, such as clientelistic dependencies, economic resources, and civil society alliances.
Highlights
Hybridity has become one of the most salient concepts across a broad range of disciplines
Through the lens of these three dimensions, we examine the dynamic interaction between hybrid politics and hybrid media: How do ownership structures, journalistic cultures and the transformation of media platforms impact on the ability of journalists and political elites to control public discourse?
The emerging hybrid media system presents an assemblage of different media logics, thereby creating a new “media ecology” (Scolari 2012) that incorporates new actors, new practices of message production, and new avenues of information flows beyond the elite-dominated system of traditional mass media, which has been the cornerstone of information control in traditional authoritarian regimes. We explore these three aspects of media hybridity in the context of hybrid politics, using evidence from Lebanon and Tunisia to demonstrate how the interdependence between political actors and media actors creates for both parts specific constellations of uncertainty and opportunities to control it
Summary
Hybridity has become one of the most salient concepts across a broad range of disciplines. We employ the hybridity concept to examine the relationship between media and politics in contexts outside the established liberal democracies of the West. Within the conceptual framework of hybridity, we aim to develop a more nuanced understanding of the ambiguity of the media–politics nexus that goes beyond the rather simplistic focus on censorship and struggles for press freedom that has dominated both research and policymaking over the past few decades (LaMay 2011; Simon 2014). The notion “hybrid regimes” has become a conceptual tool to categorize political systems that are characterized by a juxtaposition of democratic and authoritarian institutions and practices (Diamond 2002; Levitsky and Way 2010; Morlino 2009). Despite having adopted the main institutions of democratic rule, such as multiparty elections, other essential elements, most notably rule of law, effective checks and balances, and civil liberties, remain weak (Collier and Levitsky 1997; Jakli et al 2019; Merkel 2004)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
