Populism and the Media Forming an Unholy Alliance: An Integrative Framework

• In Event: The Appeal of Populist Ideas and Messages: Understanding Populism in the Context of De-Nationalization and Mediatization

Abstract

In his foreword of a book on “Media and Neo-Populism” (Mazzoleni, Stewart & Horsfield, 2003) Jay Blumler has urged that “any future attempt to analyze populism without taking into account […] 'the media factor' will be severely incomplete” (p. xvi). In spite of this appeal, communication research has stayed rather reserved and research in the field of media and populism was dominated by case-studies within the field of political science. Conceptualizations of populism have thereby been limited by the specific case under investigation and were devoid of theories of mass communication.
In order to finally answer the call for the integration of a 'media factor' to the study of populism, we initiated an integrative project for the research on populism. Within this project, research teams from comparative political science, political communication, journalism, and media psychology are contributing to a research framework to characterize and measure populism in political messages. Thereby we take into account that political and media strategies can – willingly or not – work together as an ‘unholy alliance’. For example, populists tend to blame the elite for not meeting the demands of the people or they demonstrate closeness to the people in various ways. Journalists following a media logic may amplify or weaken these populist strategies by employing conflict frames or by proclaiming to be the mouthpiece of the people.
This presentation is focused on the operationalization of populism for quantitative content analysis of political press releases and different media genres (news, talk shows, social media, etc.) in different countries. Drawing on political and communication theory we thereby offer conceptual definitions of populist ideology, political and communication strategies, and presentation styles, which are operationalized in a comparative content analysis. First results from this analysis indicate a complex interplay between populist ideology and communication both for right-wing and left-wing parties.

Authors

• Dominique Stefanie Wirz, University of Zurich

• Nicole Ernst, University of Zurich

• Florin Buechel, U of Zurich

• Anne Schulz, U of Zurich, IPMZ

• Martin Wettstein, University of Zurich

• Sven Engesser, U of Zurich

• Christian Schemer, University of Mainz

• Frank Esser, U of Zurich

• Werner Wirth, U of Zurich