Populism in the Press: A Comparative Analysis of 10 Countries

• In Event: Populism in the Press and Online

Abstract

Populism is continuously on the rise but previous studies have generally focused on single countries, predefined populist actors, and election campaigns. This papers broadens the perspective by comparing ten countries (AT, CH, DE, FR, IT, NL, PL, SE, UK, US), by including a wide spectrum of political actors, and by analyzing routine periods. We investigate the type and amount of populism a newspaper reader is exposed to on a regular basis and how both vary across countries, press outlets, and news items. We conducted a semi-automated content analysis of labor and immigration news in leading press outlets (N = 9326). The analysis shows that populism is a wide-spread phenomenon that manifests itself in a fragmented form. We find that authoritarian cultures and weekly magazines feature more populism, while straight news display less populism than their comparison groups.

Authors

• Sven Engesser, TU of Dresden

• Nicole Ernst, U of Zurich

• Florin Buechel, U of Zurich

• Frank Esser, U of Zurich