1. Making Politics Popular A changing context and content of political communication in Western Europe Kees Brants Amsterdam School of Communication Research ASCoR University of Milano Summer School, July 18, 2012

2. Changes in the political context Public distrust, electoral volatility, rise of populism Post-fact society, ‘truthiness’, truth by Twitter From party democracy to audience democracy: authenticity, charisma and empathy Selling politics and politicians in a permanent campaign

3. Changes in the media context Competition and the economy of free lead to a shift in media from a supply to a demand market Waning of public service ethos and its cultural- pedagogic logic ‘what sells’ becomes a news value New form of infotainment-journalism mixes non- professionalism with critique, comedy and cynicism

4. Appearances of popularization Popularization asPolitics/politicians Media/journalists * Personalization private, political persona, same plus vox pops and personal approach, emotions man-in-the-street * Infotainment politician in entertainment entertainment styles/formats and talk shows in information genres * Popular culture politicians copy star styles similar narrative structures and type of characters * Populism popular idiom and tone of accessible, entertaining and voice obstinate tone and style * Satire ? irony, sarcasm, ridicule, contempt

5. Questions for research Street: treat political communication as branch of show business to take the socalled trivial seriously Including more media, genres, formats, styles and qualitative research raise question of viability of longitudinal research Problems of conceptualization and operationalization: personalization, irony, sarcasm Popularization in social media: towards an extended concept?