Populist Political Communication Research Articles

Motives and interests of power. Behind Anies Baswedan's populist political communication style as a government political actor

This research was conducted with the aim of identifying Anies Baswedan's populist political communication style as a government political actor and uncovering the motives and interests of power behind its use by using theory of populism and Burke’s dramatism. This research has a critical paradigm with a qualitative research design. The data collection method consists of in-depth interviews (in dept interviews); observation; literature and document study; and triangulation. The research quality criteria are based on historical situatedness. The research results show that the populist political communication style of government political actors is a symbolic action of a leader born from the democratic process. The component of the populist political communication style that is prominently used is the pro-people component. The motive revealed was the desire to build alternative political power through image and public opinion. Meanwhile, the interests of power are to protect and strengthen the legitimacy of the leadership to maintain power and pave the way for political career advancement. A number of findings which are novel in this research are the populist dramatism approach as a synthesis of the theories of dramatism and populism; audience's perception as an additional element in the analysis of the Burkeian dramatic pentad; and identification and cross-check methods to determine the appropriate scene for the rhetorical act of political speech.

What makes the difference? Social media platforms and party characteristics as contextual factors for political parties’ use of populist political communication

Abstract Social media has contributed to the spread of populist political communication, yet we still lack systematic knowledge of the contextual factors affecting its use. In this study, we investigated how and to what degree platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and party characteristics (populist vs. non-populist parties; political ideology) affected the use of populist communication by Norwegian political parties on social media during the 2021 national election campaign. Based on a tripartite conceptualisation of populist communication consisting of people-centrism, anti-elitism, and the exclusion of out-groups, we conducted a standardised content analysis of the official social media accounts of nine parties and their party leaders. Populist communication was overall rather rare, being most widespread on Facebook and least widespread on Twitter. Which parties used populist communication the most depended on the platform, and it was not always the populist Progress Party [Fremskrittspartiet] that communicated in the most populist manner. Parties located towards the fringes of the political party spectrum used more populist communication. Anti-elitism was more widespread among left-wing parties, and almost exclusively the right-wing Progress Party excluded out-groups.

Flexible populist ideology during Russia’s war in Ukraine: A multimodal analysis of internet memes

The social media have become an increasingly important vehicle for populist mobilization and persuasion. In this study, we explore how populism as a flexible ideology becomes articulated and reconstructed in times of international political turmoil. More precisely, we focus on the multimodal construction of right-wing populist ideology in the political memes produced by the Finns Party during Russia’s war in Ukraine in the spring 2022. Our multimodal discourse analysis shows that the memes constructed national security and sovereignty, (gendered) anti-elitism, and anti-refugee arguments through drawing upon the ‘Russian threat’ as a central discursive resource. Further, it demonstrates how the specific features of internet memes – humour, entertainment, open-endedness and interactivity – can be creatively utilized in populist political communication. The results of this study have implications for the scholarly understanding of populism as a ‘thin’ and flexible ideology, and for internet memes as a channel for political persuasion and mobilization.

Populism in Context: A Cross-Country Investigation of the Facebook Usage of Populist Appeals During the 2019 European Parliament Elections

Recent scholarship demonstrated that Facebook is a fertile space for populist political communication as its unmediated and viral nature make populist appeals highly efficient in mobilizing voters. However, less attention has been paid to the way these populist messages appear through political actors’ Facebook communication, and what post- and page-level factors they are associated with. We investigate these questions in the context of the 2019 European Parliament election based on a unique cross-national dataset covering twelve European countries. In this study, we categorized 8,074 Facebook posts published on the main Facebook pages of sixty-seven parties. Our findings show that different populist appeals are used in specific ways. For example, at the post level, anti-elitism is frequently used in relation to economy, labor and social policy, and immigration; people-centric appeals are associated with labor and social policy and used when parties call for action, while out-group messages are not related to other topics beyond immigration. “Ideational populist” communication is more frequently articulated in European level and related to the topics of economy and labor and social policy. At the party level, it seems that there are still sharp differences between populist and non-populist parties in their communication.

Exploring the distinction between populism through and by the media from a visual perspective: representations of German politicians on magazine covers of Der Spiegel and Compact

By drawing on a communication-based approach to populism, this article argues that populism research should put more emphasis on the performative and stylistic dimension of the phenomenon, including its visual elements, in different media formats. The study theoretically refers to the distinction of populism through and by the media, which has been discussed to a great extent in populist political communication research. Empirically, the author focuses on visual representations of politicians on the covers of the German news weekly Der Spiegel as well as those of Compact – a far-right alternative magazine. The article argues that political magazines contribute to how the political is imagined, particularly by the visual messages they convey via their front pages. An image type analysis of both magazines’ covers between 2010 and 2020 is conducted ( N = 103) in order to explore patterns in the visual representations of German politicians disseminated by the magazines. On the one hand, the comparison of a mainstream and far-right alternative medium enriches the theoretical debate of how populism is strengthened by opportunity structures through the media. On the other hand, the issue of how populism is actively promoted by the media is addressed.

Media criticism as a propaganda strategy in political communication

ABSTRACT Over the last decade, strategic attacks on news media institutions and journalists have become an increasingly common feature of populist political communication. The purpose of this article is to identify various strategies that politicians use to criticise the news media and illuminate how the use and circulation of these strategies vary between party types. The article builds on a content analysis of the Twitter feeds of all members of parliament with an active account during the 2018 Swedish election campaign. Results show that political media criticism in Sweden is strongly associated with political personalisation, and it is almost exclusively a right-wing phenomenon, though not restricted specifically to populist parties. Public service media rather than newspapers or commercial broadcasters constitute the prime target for political media criticism in Sweden, illustrating the need to take media systemic aspects in to account when analysing media criticism as a propaganda strategy in political communication.

“Do as I say but not as I do”: Influence of political leaders’ populist communication styles on public adherence in a crisis using the global case of COVID-19 movement restrictions

This paper explores the influence of political leaders' populist communication styles on public adherence to government policies regarding COVID-19 containment. We adopt a mixed-methods approach that combines: theory building with a nested multicase study design for Study 1 and an empirical study in a natural setting for Study 2. Based on the results from Studies 1 and 2, we develop two propositions that we further explain theoretically: (P1) countries with political leaders associated with engaging or intimate populist communication styles (i.e., the UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Ireland) exhibit better public adherence to their governments' COVID-19 movement restrictions than do countries with political leaders associated with communication styles that combine the champion of the people and engaging styles (i.e., the US); (P2) the country whose political leader is associated with a combination of engaging and intimate populist communication styles (i.e., Singapore) exhibits better public adherence to the government's COVID-19 movement restrictions than do countries whose political leaders adopted solely engaging or solely intimate styles, namely, the UK, Canada, Australia, and Ireland. This paper contributes to the research on political leadership in crises and populist political communication.

POPULISM IN CONTEXT. A CROSS-COUNTRY INVESTIGATION OF THE FACEBOOK USAGE OF POPULIST APPEALS DURING THE 2019 EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS

Recent scholarship demonstrated that Facebook is a convenient space for populist political communication as its unmediated and viral nature make populist appeals highly efficient in voters’ mobilization (Engesser et al., 2017). However, less attention has been paid to the way these populist messages appear on political actors’ communication, and what post- and page-level factors they are associated with. We investigate these questions in the context of the 2019 European Parliament (EP) election based on a unique cross-national dataset covering 12 European countries. In our research project we categorized more than 8,074 Facebook posts published on the main pages of 67 parties. Our findings show that the three dimensions of populist communication are used strategically different way and appear in different communication context. Anti-elitist messages are articulated in relation to economy, labor and social policy and immigration mostly by extreme parties. People-centrism is frequently used in relation to labor & social policy, and in European- and mobilization-focused posts all over the political landscape. Out-group messages appear in immigration-related posts and in far-right parties’ communication.

The Populist Construct of Migration: Framing within SPD's Communication Strategy ahead of the 2019 European Elections

Populism represents one of the major trends in contemporary politics across all European democracies. A key element in the success of populist parties is their communication strategy, with social networks that have become an ideal platform for populist political communication. Concerns about the success of populist groups marked also the recent European Parliamentary elections in May 2019. This also applies to the Czech Republic, where populist rhetoric is mainly represented by the Freedom and Direct Democracy party (SPD). The main objective of the article is to reveal how SPD is framing migration in the political communication on Facebook during the period of three months before the elections to the European Parliament. It mainly focuses on its content and form regarding the posts' visual elements and technical parameters. As migration was the main topic of populist political communication, special attention is paid to the communication regarding this phenomenon, incl. an analysis of selected frames and manipulation techniques in the SPD political communication. The result shows, that migration played the most important role but was communicated selectively and manipulatively. Only the negative effects of migration were emphasised, it was framed in connection with other negative phenomena (especially rape, crime, and terrorism) and illustrated by pictures of aggressive Muslims, emotions of fear, anger, and hatred were evoked among the supporters, which further contributed to the radicalisation and sustainability of the mobilisation of the electorate.

Agnieszka Stępińska (Ed.): Populist Political Communication Across Europe: Contexts and Contents

Agnieszka Stępińska (Ed.): POPULIST POLITICAL COMMUNICATION ACROSS EUROPE: CONTEXTS AND CONTENTS Berlin: Peter Lang GmbH. 2020, 230 pages

Book review: Populist Political Communication in Europe

Book review: Populist Political Communication in Europe

Hatékonyan hatni az emberekre

The economic and political crises of the last two decades have been greatly influenced by the factthat, impacted by manipulative effects, instead to follow their rational judgements people havemade their decisions under the influence of emotional and instinctive temtation, deception andmanipulation. So far, these manipulative influences dominate contemporary commercial or populist political communication. The paper below shares the author’s hesitation that, whilenon-rational factors bias from rational arguing and reasoning, both in decision-making and incommunicative impacts on the other person inevitably present, is it acceptable to manipulatethe users/clients by assisting professionals/social workers while exercising influence on decision-making of their clients? And if so, under what conditions, what specific constraints could beexercised such impacts and „professional power”? Likewise, when and what can and should bedone to immunize clients against manipulation, to mitigate manipulative effects, to „gain back”rational mind and „empower” clients to follow rational consideration and make wiser decisions?The article does not undertake to provide „only” true and correct answers, rather gives insightsand tries to provoke its reader to contribute to clarifying this important issue.

Populist communication among usual and unusual suspects: A longitudinal analysis of the communication of Finnish party leaders during parliamentary elections (2007–2019)

AbstractA great deal of scholarly attention has been devoted to the success of populist actors around the world. However, to a lesser extent, the focus has been directed towards the way in which populist political communication is used by other parties and how populist political communication has developed over time. Hence, this article takes a longitudinal approach to examine how Finnish party leaders have used populist communication during four parliamentary elections and if populist communication is contagious. This study argues that populism is best understood as a discursive frame, combined with the necessary element of people centrism with antielitism and/or exclusion of ‘dangerous others’. Manual content analysis has been used to measure the usage of populism in Finnish party leader interviews during the parliamentary elections between 2007 and 2019. The analysis reveals that several party leaders used populist political communication and that an increase in its overall usage occurred during the 2011 parliamentary election. Most commonly, populism was used by the Finns Party's leaders and by leaders of other niche parties in the opposition. However, in the 2011 parliamentary election, certain mainstream parties also used populist political communication. The article critically examines the idea of a populist Zeitgeist and the contagious effect of populist political communication as an explanation for the significant increase in populist political communication. The article suggests that populist communication spreads to certain parties, but to speak of a full‐blown populist Zeitgeist seems exaggerated in a consensus‐seeking multiparty democracy.

Populist Dimension of Mediated Discourses About Corruption in Romania

Understanding populism as a communication strategy (Aalberg et al. 2017) that is based on both messages and styles (Engesser et. al., 2017), the present research investigates the populist elements of political discourses articulating the subject of “corruption” in the context of the attempts to change the anti-corruption legislation by the Romanian government in 2017–2018. Based on audience preferences and on the density of political communication conducted by both political and media actors, the study conducted content analysis articles from three major Romanian TV-related news portals during February 2017 and May 1 – June 5, 2018 (N=548). In addition, computer-assisted content analysis was performed on social media posts of political parties (N=875) and the posts of their leaders (N=540). The research not only identified elements of populist political communication both in the content and the style of corruption-discourses but also reflected the polarization of the Romanian media system.

The Role of Regulatory Agencies in Agenda-Setting Processes: Insights from the Italian Response to the COVID-19 Infodemic.

International organizations such as the WHO have worked to raise awareness of the massive infodemic that accompanied the COVID‐19 outbreak and made it hard for people to find trustworthy sources of information and reliable guidance for their decisions. Our contribution focuses on the Italian case, where the Communications Regulatory Authority (AGCOM) was able to act as first mover in its field so as to strategically frame the problem of disinformation in the absence of a pre‐existing policy intervention. An emerging body of research shows that the activity of formally independent regulators is not necessarily limited to the implementation of delegated regulatory competencies. We discuss the implications of the activity of independent regulators for the fight against disinformation during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We find that as a political actor in its own right, the Italian media regulator claimed control over sectoral expertise in order to shape the crucial first steps of the response to the infodemic.

The Effects of Populist Identity Framing on Populist Attitudes Across Europe: Evidence From a 15-Country Comparative Experiment

Abstract We investigate the effects of populist messages that (a) stress the centrality of “ordinary” people, (b) shift blame to the “corrupt” elites, or (c) combine people centrality and antielitist cues on 3 dimensions of populist attitudes: anti-elitism, homogeneous people, and popular sovereignty. We conducted an extensive 15-country experiment in which we manipulated populist communication as social identity frames (N = 7,271). Multilevel analyses demonstrate that messages stressing the centrality of the ordinary people activate all dimensions of populist attitudes. In contrast, anti-elite messages activate anti-elitism attitudes only for those individuals with lower levels of education and extreme positions on the ideological left–right spectrum. Our findings suggest that populist political communication plays a key role in activating populist attitudes across Europe.

Country images and identities in times of populism: Swiss media discourses on the ‘stop mass immigration’ initiative

The construction of certain country images and identities is traditionally studied in relation to public diplomacy, strategic communication and nation branding practices of state and non-state actors. However, we notice the increased instrumentalization of country images and identities in debates on issues beyond strategic promotional practices, such as those articulated around elections, referendums or migration. We analyse how Swiss media constructed Switzerland's image and identity in the debate following the 2014 referendum on ‘stop mass immigration’ initiative, in times of populism, a communication phenomenon and ideology discursively articulated by political and media actors. Thus, we: (1) bridge streams of research on country images, identities, migration and populism that have yet to be integrated; (2) propose critical discourse analysis to identify specific discursive strategies (offering insights into alternative methodologies for studying populist political communication content and style); (3) highlight the role of media in reproducing populist discourses on country images and identities.

Populist political ideation and communication of gubernatorial candidates in Indonesia’s 2018 gubernatorial elections: Anti-establishment views, secular nationalism and Islamism as ideational-populist elements

Populism has been evolving across the globe. Knowledge of the ways and degree to which political actors in Asian democracy exploited anti-establishment views, secular nationalism and Islamism as ideational elements when they established populist political communication strategies for local elections has, however, been under-developed. Focusing on such issues, this work selects gubernatorial candidates who ran in Indonesia’s 2018 gubernatorial elections as cases, using extracts from materials they posted on their Facebook pages. The findings are as follows. Candidates did not merely advocate anti-establishment views, but also adopted secular nationalism and Islamism as ideational-populist elements for developing populist political communication strategies. Those who exploited anti-economic elites favoured establishing secular nationalist and Islamic-based populist political communication strategies inclusively. Those who propagated anti-economic, anti-political and anti-bureaucratic elites instead greatly preferred advancing an Islamic populist political communication strategy. However, through employing such efforts, only few succeeded in these elections.

The Mediatization and Culturalization of Populist Political Communication

Researching the impact of populist political communication on media, art, and the cultural sphere in Serbia, the authors investigate various different phenomena that are rising under the pretext of market liberalisation and identity politics. Deregulation of media may have brought “independence” from power, but also complete market-dependence. In the cultural sphere, pressures on the arts from right-wing populism have lead to extreme nationalism in Serbian media and cultural practices while simulta-neously seeing a commercialisation of programming. “National discussions” regarding the status of real-ity show programmes on commercial television and accusations of anti-patriotism against most promi-nent Serbian artists have been lead by right-wing populists. At the same time, this research takes into account several forms of left-wing populism, mostly developed within the independent scene.

Target the enemy: explicit and implicit populism in the rhetoric of the Hungarian right

ABSTRACT In contemporary years, right-wing populism has emerged as a widespread political phenomenon in Europe. In Eastern Europe, especially in Hungary, right-wing populism is not only a growing political communication style but a part of the mainstream ideology. This paper aims to compare Hungary’s ruling conservative-right wing party, Fidesz, and its leader Viktor Orban’s public speeches in terms of populist rhetoric. This study scrutinizes both the Facebook posts of the government during the 2018 campaign stage and the Hungarian prime minister’s public speeches from a very similar period. This study tries to characterize the two entities’ populist communication styles and the topics they stressed in their messages by measuring and analyzing the Explicit and Implicit Populist dichotomies in the relevant databases. Our results reveal possible correlations between specific words, like ‘War Terminologies,’ emphasis on antagonist entities, the issue of ‘Immigration,’ and references to collective identity in the ruling party’s and its leaders’ populist rhetoric. The political actors above aim to convince their supporters of their capabilities and rights to protect and rule Hungary, a prominent example of right-wing populist political communication.