THE JOURNALIST AND THE POLITICIAN – THE BLURRING OF THE BORDERS BETWEEN TWO PUBLIC ROLES
THE JOURNALIST AND THE POLITICIAN – THE BLURRING OF THE BORDERS BETWEEN TWO PUBLIC ROLES

Author(s): Ilya Valkov
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Media studies, Communication studies, Theory of Communication
Published by: Факултет по журналистика и масова комуникация, Софийски университет „Св. Кл. Охридски”
Keywords: Media; journalism; Bulgarian media environment; subversion; public interest; journalists; politicians; changes in roles
Summary/Abstract: The interplay between politics and the media is an old and well-known game.History offers a lot of examples of prominent figures who have switched between these two public roles – from a journalist into a politician, and vice versa. The mediatized politics and the politicized media environment give skillful politicians the unique opportunity to exert ever greater control over the media market and the editorial content through the use of institutional levers. In Bulgaria, for example, we see the revival of party media. Along with these processes, a quiet subversion is going on. In addition to journalism being used as a ‘springboard’ to a political career, there has been an increase in the number of politicians who become journalists and take advantage of the decreasing level of public trust the media still enjoy. This article describes and analyzes precisely this blurring of the border between politics and the media, between the politician and the journalist. Of course, the big losers as a result of this subversion are the citizens.

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