News Consumption, Military Interventionism, and Support for Anti-Democratic Movements

Following a defeat in the 2022 Brazilian presidential election, supporters of Jair Bolsonaro mounted an anti-democratic campaign that culminated in attacks on the capital, Brasilia. While scholars have long studied the relationship between media use and support for left-leaning movements in the Global North, this survey-based study (N = 1,225) examines how this relationship operates for non-democratic movements in Brazil. We found a strong relationship between media use and political attitudes, polarized along pro- and anti-Bolsonaro lines for news consumption, and marked by cross-platform differences on social media. Results show that the relationship between legacy news and movement support is moderated by attitudes toward military intervention, with the association becoming stronger among individuals with more authoritarian inclinations. Instagram and YouTube use is associated with lower levels of movement support, while messaging apps are linked to greater support. These results suggest that rather than understanding anti-democratic movements as imported from recent Western populist ideas, scholars must consider how these movements operate through both universalizing and particularizing tendencies. Our findings indicate that the local political history of military interventionism is central to understanding the spread of contemporary authoritarian movements in the region, with legacy media still playing a key role in promoting democratic outcomes.