Dimensions, speakers, and targets: Basic patterns in European media reporting on populism

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportChapter in book/Anthology/ReportContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Sina Blassnig - , University of Zurich (Author)
  • Patricia Rodi - , St Mary's University, Twickenham (Author)
  • Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt - , Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Author)
  • Kinga Adamczewska - , Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Author)
  • Lilia Raycheva - , Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski (Author)
  • Sven Engesser - , Institute of Media and Communication, Chair of Media and Communication/Science and Technology Communication, TUD Dresden University of Technology (Author)
  • Frank Esser - , University of Zurich (Author)

Abstract

This chapter first explains the theoretical and methodological background for a content analysis of news coverage across 12 countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Switzerland, United Kingdom) and two years (2016 and 2017). It provides information about the main elements of the content analysis (people-centrism, anti-elitism, sovereignty, and exclusion) and explains sampling strategies, codebook, operationalization and reliability. In addition, it gives descriptive results for the coverage investigated. For example, the chapter shows that 60 percent of all analyzed 'commentaries' and 40 percent of all analyzed 'news items on immigration' contain at least one populist key message. Across both story types (commentaries and immigration-related news items), the most salient dimension of populist communication is anti-elitism, followed by people-centrism and exclusion, while sovereignty is the least common dimension. While populism in some countries is clearly dominated by anti-elitism (Poland, Greece, Israel, and Germany), a second group of countries score moderately high on two or more dimensions (e.g., Switzerland, France), and other countries show a rather low occurrence of all four dimensions (e.g., Norway).

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCommunicating Populism
PublisherTaylor and Francis Group
Pages71-101
Number of pages31
ISBN (electronic)9780429687853
ISBN (print)9781138392724
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2019
Peer-reviewedYes

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals