Conference Presentation, Q&A and Screening
The shifting political center, democracy, and the foundations of journalism: how to survive in today’s polarized political landscape?
By Nico Carpentier at the Media Conference 2026: Journalism, Freedom, Data, Privacy, Tallinn University, Estonia (26 March 2026).
Nico Carpentier discusses how new political realities and their more radical positions seek to redefine truth and ethics, and challenge the foundations of Western journalism. As a part of the presentation, the film essay AGON: Constructions of Democracy was screened. This work deals with the core elements and the conditions of possibility of democracy, as well as its struggles and threats to its very existence. The focus on journalism ties the film to the second part of Nico Carpentier’s and Jeffrey Wimmer’s book Democracy and Media in Europe: A Discursive-Material Approach (2024), dealing with the democratic roles of media.