1. Mediatization and Populism: critical reflections on key concepts and recent trends
James Stanyer

2. Politics and the populist turn
Buzzword; zeitgeist
Populists/ populism on the rise?
Austrian Freedom Party (Austria), Vlaams Belang (Belgium), Front National (France), True Finns (Finland) Sweden Democrats (Sweden), Progress Party (Norway), Golden Dawn (Greece), Lega Nord (Italy), UKIP (UK) and Trump (USA)
Syriza (Greece), Podemos (Spain), Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany)

3. Electoral success of populist and totalitarian parties in 33 European democracies 2016 (% share in last national election)

4. High profile leaders Recognisable, ‘charismatic’, divisive
Skilled communicators, old and new media
Political celebrities

5. Structure and Focus Defining terms/ concepts
Avoiding naive universalism – comparative research
Is populism/ populist political communication a product of our media age?
What role does the media play in the growth and spread of populist communication?
How useful is the concept mediatization for helping us understand developments?

6. Populism and populist political communication
‘Conceptual slipperiness’ (Taggart, 2000:1)
Ionescu and Gellner (1969:1): ‘… it is elusive and protean. It bobs up everywhere, but in many contradictory shapes’.
Conceptual disagreement – who is or is not populist
Understand populism NOT as an identity of political actors but a characteristic of political communication

7. Actor-centred approach
Communication-centred approach
Starting point for the analysis
Identifying the characteristics of populist political actors
Identifying the characteristics of populist communication
Main focus
Actors defined as populist
Communication defined as populist
Empirical object of study
All relevant political communicators
Perspective on populism
Populism an ideology decoupled from how political actors communicate
How political actors communicate

8. Populism as an ideology and communication style
Populism as a thin ideology (Mudde, 2004)
Thin ideology based around popular sovereignty (the will of the people/volonté générale) (Mudde, 2004; Hawkins, 2009; Kriesi, 2014).
Attached to other thicker ideologies – left/right
Manifest in a communication style
A style which has certain features/ characteristics

9. People vs the Elite
Hawkins proposes that populism is: ‘a Manichean discourse that identifies Good with a unified will of the people and Evil with a conspiring elite’ (2009:1042)
Canovan ‘appeal to the people, against the established structure of power and the dominate ideas and values of the society’ (1999:3)
Cas Mudde ‘an ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups, “the pure people” versus “the corrupt elite” ’ (2004:543)

10. Rooduijn (2017)
(i) a focus on the antagonistic relationship and dynamics between the people (perceived as good and pure) and the elite (perceived as corrupt and malicious)
(ii) populism ‘conceived of as being a substantive message – or a set of ideas’ (Rooduijn, 2017:4) that manifest itself in the communication of political actors.

11. People vs out-groups
Some suggest a third part: the exclusion of ‘out groups’ (Canovan 1981; Taggart 2000; Mudde 2004; Rooduijn et al., 2014)
‘the exclusion of out-groups’ is a feature of populist radical right-wing parties
Internal and external outgroups
Additional factors such as charismatic leadership and the inclusion of crude language but not constitutive
Emotional bond?

12. Jaggers and Walgrave (2007) Populism as Political Communication Style

13. Explaining the rise of populist communication
External demand-side conditions
Real-world events such as the economic crisis, austerity policies, globalization and rising immigration, disenchangment with the political class or the political system
External supply-side conditions
Media environment, digital media offering venues to bypass traditional media, disseminate populist messages, offer conspiracy theories, and organizing people
Internal supply-side conditions
Populist political actors have become more polished, better funded, better organized and more skilled at exploiting people’s fears, antagonisms between groups and people’s disillusionment with established politics.

14. Defining Mediatization
A temporal process – a multi-dimensional meta-process akin to globalization or commercialization
Institutionalist and social constructivist accounts
Institutionalist accounts: non-media institutions have to adapt to ‘media’s rules, aims, production logics, and constraints’ (Mazzoleni and Schulz, 1999:249)

15. Logic of the political sphere is ‘yielding to the supremacy of the logics and imperatives of the media in contemporary society’ (Mazzoleni, 2014, 43)
‘a conversion and adaptation of the traditional stylistic features of political communication to typical media formats’ (Mazzoleni, 2014, 43)
‘media formats, content, grammar and rhythm so pervasive that no social actors requiring interaction with the public or influence on public opinion can ignore the media or afford not to adapt to its logic’ (Mazzoleni, 2014, 43)

17. Mediatization and populism
Mazzoleni, 2008, 2014; Moffitt & Tormey, 2014
Media not the cause then what?
Populist leaders and parties subject to the same media logic as other politicians
Media crucial for the dissemination of populist messages
BUT….
Politicians adapt, innovate, seek new media opportunities,
Media react

18. Populist leaders and social media

19. Donald Trump and Twitter

20. The people
America first, make America great again

21. Attacking political establishment
Obama, Clinton

22. Attacking media elites

23. Trump – attacking out groups

24. Media Populism Not just about politicians
Political actors using the media as a communication channel – (Esser et al., 2017; Krämer, 2014, Stanyer, 2007)
‘Media Populism’ – populism by media outlets (Esser et al., 2017; Krämer, 2014, Stanyer, 2007)
Populist citizen journalism (Esser et al., 2017)

25. Media as conduit for populist communication
News values – newsworthy actors
Ratings – market driven competition
Sensitive/ controversial issues
Often unintentional
Media ownership
Opinion v newspaper (Esser et al., 2017; Krämer, 2014, Stanyer, 2007)

26. Populist media Content designed and developed by the media themselves
Can be seen in particular in the tabloid press and talk radio in some countries (and online)
Anti-establishment stance (beyond holding to account)
Hostility towards political elites
Cynicism, mockery (Esser et al., 2017; Krämer, 2014, Stanyer, 2007)

27. Opinion Media
Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones – talk radio, cable TV

28. Tabloid media

29. Populist pundits/ and media stars
Online provocateurs
Alt Right media US
Networks

30. Russian Narodniki (Taggart, 2000:46ff),
Is populism/ populist political communication a product of our media age?
Russian Narodniki (Taggart, 2000:46ff),
In the American People’s Party during the nineteenth century (Taggart, 2000)
Latin America in the 1940s and 50s
Poujadism 1950s France
Qualunquismo, post war Italy

31. What role does the media play in the growth and spread of populist communication?
Media environment – opportunity structures
Media issue agendas
Priming
Frames and framing
Discourse normalization
Combination of factors, political, economic, social

32. How useful is the concept mediatization for helping us understand developments?
Concept utility and value added
More than just adaptation to media logic
Media environment
Dynamics of populist discourse
Changing media environment

33. Responding to populist communication
How best to tackle exclusionary discourses/ ‘othering’
Challenge or ignore?
Challenging claims to represent the people
Challenging hate speech
Resisting the normalization of discord and division
New York fashion week 2017
One Mexican born designer from LRS Studio,
declared 'f*** your wall' and 'no ban, no wall' on
the back of models' white underwear. 

34. Inspiring Winners Since 1909
Thank you!
Inspiring Winners Since 1909

35. Select references
Esser, F., Stepinska, A., Hopmann, N. (2017) Aalberg, T., Esser, F., Reinemann, C., Stromback, J. and de Vreese, C. (Eds.) Populist Political Communication in Europe. London: Routledge
Esser, F., & Strömbäck, J. (Eds.). (2014). Mediatization of politics. Understanding the transformation of western democracies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Hawkins, K. A. (2009). Is Chavez Populist? Measuring Populist Discourse in Comparative Perspective. Comparative Political Studies 42(8): 1040–1067
Jagers, J. & Walgrave, S. (2007). Populism as political communication style: An empirical study of political parties’ discourse in Belgium. European Journal of Political Research 46: 319–345
Kriesi, H. (2014). The Populist Challenge. West European Politics, 37(2),

36. Moffitt, B., & Tormey, S. (2014). Rethinking Populism: Politics, Mediatisation and Political Style. Political Studies: 62, 381–397
Mudde, C. (2004). The populist Zeitgeist. Government and Opposition 39: 541–563.
—— (2007). Populist radical right parties in Europe. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Rooduijn, M. (2017). What unites the voter bases of populist parties? Comparing the electorates of 15 populist parties. European Political Science Review, page 1 of 18. European Consortium for Political Research doi: /S

37. Stanyer, J. (2007) Modern Political Communication. Cambridge UK: Polity
Strömbäck, J. (2008). Four phases of mediatization: An analysis of the mediatization of politics. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 13(3), 228–246.
Strömbäck, J., & Esser, F. (2014a). Mediatization of politics. Towards a theoretical framework. In F. Esser & J. Strömbäck (Eds.), Mediatization of politics. Understanding the transformation of Western democracies (pp. 3–28). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Taggart, P. (2000). Populism. Buckingham: Open University Press.