Political Polarization and Media Logic in Georgia: Television Coverage of EU Topics

The article aims to analyze the relationship between the media logic of European Union coverage on television and political polarization in Georgia. For this purpose, the study relies on the results of media monitoring conducted in April–May 2024, followed by expert interviews carried out after this period. These stages reflect the political crisis related to the ruling party’s initiation and adoption of the Law of Georgia on Transparency of Foreign Influence (also known as the “foreign agents” or “transparency” law), which has been highly criticized by the European Union. This crisis is an outcome of the country’s contested European trajectory, which further deepened political confrontations between the ruling and the opposition parties. The research confirms that political polarization has also translated into media polarization, while Georgia’s European integration has become one of the major themes of polarization. Both public and private television outlets have been analyzed, which has revealed that the private partisan broadcasters frame the topic from different politicized perspectives, while the public broadcaster seeks to maintain neutrality, though still tends to voice pro-governmental discourses. The coverage of European Union topics also occasionally references other global actors, such as Russia and the United States, reinforcing the dichotomy of “friends” versus “enemies.” The study showed that political polarization, commercial influences, and a lack of professional standards are factors that hinder balanced television coverage of European Union topics.