The News Media as Gatekeepers, Critics and Originators of Populist Communication

• In Event: Understanding Populist Communication Practices

Abstract

In the wake of the recent success of populist political actors and causes in Europe, the role of the media in the promotion of populism has become an issue of public debate. We understand populism as a thin ideology that is articulated discursively by political and media actors and focus on two ideational constituents of media populism, namely ‘people centrality’ and ‘anti-elitism’ to investigate three possible theoretical explanations for their proliferation: media as ‘gatekeepers’, ‘interpreters’ and ‘originators’ of populism. Adopting a rarely taken media-centric perspective and employing a research design of unparalleled scope in this research field, we analyze 9000 news stories published between 2014 and 2015 in 59 media outlets from 10 European countries on migration and the labor market. We find that news media take an ambivalent position toward populism, actively restricting the access of populist actors to news coverage but initiating and disseminating their messages and ideas.

Authors

• Martin Wettstein, University of Zurich; IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research

• Frank Esser, U of Zurich

• Anne Schulz, U of Zurich - IKMZ

• Dominique Stefanie Wirz, University of Fribourg - Dept. of Communication & Media Research

• Werner Wirth, U of Leipzig