Populist communication in talk shows and social media. A comparative content analysis in four countries

Abstract

To understand populism, it is crucial to understand populist political communication. We investigate how politicians across the political spectrum employ populist communication in different non-institutionalized communication arenas. Populism is defined as a thin ideology and three dimensions of populist communication are distinguished: people-centrism, anti-elitism, and exclusion. We analyze politicians’ statements in talk shows and social media (Twitter and Facebook) in four Western democracies. The analysis shows that populist communication is context-dependent and that the use of the three dimensions varies across political systems, media channels, and party types.