Structural masculinism and women's media ownership in the context of authoritarian-populism: a feminist political economy of communication

This study explores the structural imbrications between gendered news media ownership and masculinist authoritarian-populism from the lens of a feminist political economy of communication. The existing literature offers useful insights into the authoritarian-capitalist restructuration of media, but less so into how these processes are gendered. Drawing on primary data and secondary resources of ownership ties in Austria, Slovenia, and Turkey we explore the masculinist configuration of news media ownership in countries that saw the rise of authoritarian-populist politics in recent years, albeit in varying degrees. We employ the concept of structural masculinism and the perspective of feminist political economy of communication to reveal the ways in which news media ownership structures are gendered. We argue that female underrepresentation coupled with patriarchal family business models, ownership concentration, and clientelist-masculinist ties between politics and media create a fertile ground for media influence and control by masculinist authoritarian-populists.