Exchanges: A Cambridge UP Podcast Reece Peck, "Fox Populism: Branding Conservatism as Working Class" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
Mar 8, 2019
Reece Peck, an assistant professor of media culture at the College of Staten Island, dives into the fascinating world of Fox News in his discussion. He explores how the network successfully brands conservatism through a working-class lens while leveraging tabloid sensibilities. Peck traces the evolution of Fox from Rupert Murdoch's vision to Trump’s influence, illustrating how their intertwining narratives reshape political discourse. He highlights how Fox's style creates a unique coalition of working-class and business-class viewers, blending entertainment with political messaging.
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Populism as Narrative and Performance
- Populism in Fox News is both a narrative and a performative style dividing media into elite versus people camps.
- This dramatizes political conflicts, appealing to viewers through moral authority and populist rhetoric.
Murdoch's Media Class Strategy
- Rupert Murdoch mastered appealing to cultural class identities through tabloid styles starting in the UK and Australia.
- He shifted to US television where he launched Fox as a counter-elite network blending populism and tabloid journalism.
Tabloid Style Transforms TV News
- Murdoch broke traditional TV journalism's impartial style by introducing tabloid emotional and opinionated journalism.
- Fox News uniquely merged tabloid emotional style with political editorializing, creating a novel form of news.
