No abstract

Right-wing populist parties are thriving across Europe. Usual explanations for the success of these parties are based on notions related to economics, national identity or cultural alienation. Arguably the mass media also play a significant role, providing legitimizing publicity for these parties that often operate at the fringes of the political system. Whereas prior studies provide evidence of media effects drawing on macro-level data and/or qualitative accounts, there is little evidence about how mass media coverage may affect support for the populist right on the level of the individual voter. The current study adds to the existing literature on media and political populism by 1) its individual-level focus, 2) the use of an experimental design employing three different media cues: an immigrant cue, an anti-politics cue and a party cue, and 3) by drawing on explicit and implicit data for party support. We find effects of certain cues on both implicit and explicit support for right-wing populist parties, mediated through political cynicism. Interestingly, media cues have greater effects on higher-knowledge respondents, and operate differently for respondents on the left versus the right of the ideological spectrum.

Overt love of God and country have seemingly been prerequisites to be president in the United States in recent decades, if not always. Indeed, the 2008 presidential race was replete with campaign messages showcasing such perspectives-that Barack Obama and John McCain were religiously faithful and deeply patriotic. Scholarship demonstrates the potential political power of explicit appeals to America and Christianity; however, little research has examined (a) citizens' perceptions of candidates' ties to faith and nation and (b) how these impressions may be related to electoral attitudes and intended vote. We address this gap, measuring both explicit and implicit indicators of the Christian-ness and American-ness of Obama and McCain. We expected and found that both explicit and-in a final-entry regression position-implicit perceptions of these traits related to voters' overall candidate attitudes and intended vote choice and that they were connected significantly more strongly for our sample of self-described Republicans than Democrats. Results illuminate these partisan differences and raise questions about their implications for U.S. presidential politics in years to come.

Previous research on the populist radical right (PRR) has focused exclusively on explicit measures in explaining support for these contested political players. In this study, we explore the role of implicit attitudes in predicting vote likelihood for a PRR party. We use an online survey (n 5 773) among Dutch respondents in which we measured implicit attitudes towards the Dutch PRR Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) with a Single-Target Implicit Association Test (ST-IAT). The results show that the implicit measure predicts vote likelihood in general, as well as in ways beyond that accounted for by traditional explanations of PRR party support. Importantly, the results also show that the impact of implicit attitudes on intended vote choice is greater for less extreme voters; in other words, those voters less likely to say they would vote for the PVV are more heavily influenced at an implicit level, beyond their awareness. This suggests that implicit attitudes of the PRR party may be quite useful for explaining support among voters who would not normally self-report it.

This study responds to recent calls to investigate how media users perceive virtual reality technology in journalism. Within a uses and gratifications framework, focus group participants were asked to experience recent immersive journalistic productions and discuss their reactions. Six distinct gratifications were identified, which cluster into gratifications related to experience, affect, and action. Despite clear reservations about the technology, users see great potential for journalistic use. If employed responsibly, users think virtual reality can add considerable value to mainstream journalistic productions, potentially boosting engagement and trust. Researchers and practitioners can benefit from this initial study of users’ impressions of and reactions to immersive journalism.