Populism in Online Election Coverage

Dimensions, Speakers, and Targets

“…Thus, populism by journalists was higher in opinion-oriented pieces (M = 0.56, SD = 0.67) than in immigration news (M = 0.13, SD = 0.37, F = 410.64, p < .001, ƞ 2 = .13), while news articles on immigration were more dominated by populism by political speakers (M = 0.21, SD = 0.47) than opinion pieces (M = 0.12, SD = 0.35, F = 33.77, p < .001, ƞ 2 = .012). This seems reasonable and in line with theoretical expectations as well as with other recent studies (Blassnig et al, 2018;Hameleers et al, 2017).…”

“…However, opinion pieces had a higher tendency to be populist than immigration news across all countries. This may be explained by the fact that in straight news articles, journalists follow professional norms, such as objectivity, more strictly than in opinion pieces which may have a generally more polemic nature and where the media may be more critical towards the establishment and more advocative on behalf of the people (Blassnig et al, 2018;Hameleers et al, 2017). Moreover, news on immigration contained more exclusionist key messages.…”

“…opinion pieces on the topic of immigration; triangle shape). We made this additional distinction here because earlier research implies that those voicing populist messages may be different for opinion-oriented and straight news (Blassnig, Ernst, Büchel, Engesser, & Esser, 2018;Hameleers et al, 2017). Analogous to the overall populism in the media index, the two indices for political speaker and media speaker are sum indices of dummy variables for the four dimensions (0-4).…”

Hitting a Nerve: Populist News Articles Lead to More Frequent and More Populist Reader Comments

“…Several of these aspects may render reader comments particularly prone to populist communication (Blassnig et al, 2019). Perceiving comment sections as communitarian spaces, counter publics, or echo chambers involves the construction of in-and out-groups, the conception of a people with a closed, collective identity, and the use of "us" vs. "them" rhetoric, which are all central characteristics of populist communication (Abts & Rummens, 2007;de Vreese et al, 2018;Mudde, 2004).…”

“…The characteristics of online news media, such as the attention economy of the Internet, an increasingly commercialized media logic, and a more direct connection to the people, may foster populist communication by political actors, the media, and citizens (Blassnig et al, 2019). Online, these three actor groups can directly interact, and their communication is intertwined within the same platform.…”