The following text offers a perspective on how research, including in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations in Bulgaria, opens a productive angle of analysis of social problems while also challenging the preconceptions of a U.S.-based academic. In the introductory part of this piece, I briefly describe my long-term study of the relationship between right-wing populism and media which eventually resulted in the publication of my first book, Free to Hate: How Media Liberalization Enabled Right-wing Populism in Post-1989 Bulgaria, published by the University of Illinois Press (November 2023). I discuss the theoretical framework of my project, namely critical political economy, and focus on the value of research that incorporates conversations with Bulgarian media professionals and observation of their places of work. The larger second part of the text is a translation of the opening section of the last chapter of my book focused on the work conditions of Bulgarian media workers. This segment of my book shows how interviews and observations not only shed light on why some journalists join far-right media, but also forces us to question how a vibrant democracy and a lively civil society could exist in a media sphere that undervalues journalistic labor.
Martin Marinos (Mon,) studied this question.