Populist communication and media environments

Abstract

Populist leaders and movements have long adapted their communication practices to fit their media environments. Yet, research on the relationship between media and populism has been limited until recently. This article offers an overview of how media researchers have been identifying populist media and communication practices and investigating ways in which media structures may constrain or enable the growth of populist movements. It discusses three different scholarly frameworks that suggest that social media platforms and shifts in news media may be providing new opportunities for populist messages to circulate more widely. These shifts may be a contributing factor to a recent surge in populism across many countries. Finally, this article raises normative questions about journalistic practices and media policy in response to concerns about right-wing populist communication practices.

Making Sense of Populist Hyperreality in the Post-Truth Age: Evidence from Volodymyr Zelensky’s Voters

“…Research on new information environments (van Aelst et al, 2016) and media regimes (Williams & Delli Carpini, 2011) has become central to our understanding of many defining political communication phenomena in the twenty-first century. This is true for the study of populism (Nadler, 2019), mediatization (Strömbäck & Esser, 2014), and post-truth politics (Waisbord, 2018), among other things. Against the backdrop of the growing range of approaches to examining these new information environments, it seems unfortunate that the once widely cited and influential concept of hyperreality (Baudrillard & Poster, 2001) receives less attention in the newer literature, even though its relevance for the comprehension of contemporary political communication has only increased.…”

Conceptualizing a Populist Narrative: Rationales, Attributes, Implications

“…22 When it comes to populist actors, they tend to favorably view opportunities offered by narrative-driven politics. 23 To a large extent, this is because the above-discussed media structures demand political communication and culture which are partly in tune with those practiced by populists. 24 For instance, as populists tend to discursively oppose themselves to the mainstream politicians, this is natural for them to also strive for a maximum distance from those politicians' routines and practices, including traditional channels and formats of communication.…”

Stories about “Us” and “Them”: An Experimental Inquiry into the Relative Appeal of Populist Narratives

“…Building upon recent experimental research that showed how recipients' emotions and cognitions are affected by short populist messages, such as electoral posters (Wirz, 2018) or news items (Hameleers et al, 2019;Hameleers et al, 2021), this study extends the discussion through shifting attention to the influence of populist narratives. The need to incorporate populist narratives into analysis is determined by the ongoing changes in political communication culture characterized by mediatization and personalization of politics (Esser & Strömbäck, 2014), the growing range of formats and sources of political communication, and the reduced institutional gatekeeping (Nadler, 2019). These and other related processes contribute to a political environment in which the competition of ideas often gives way to the competition of stories making the questions posed in the previous paragraph especially relevant.…”

“…The narrative transportation effect (Gerrig, 1993;Green & Brock 2000) is proposed as a proxy for accessing the relative appeal of populist storytelling. It is assumed that political stories framed in a populist way (Nadler, 2019), social networking platforms (Enli & Rosenberg, 2018), mass culture (Holbert et al, 2003), etc.…”