What is populism anyway? Newspaper representations of populism in Spain and Italy between emptiness and political partisanship

Bibliographic Data

ID7478044
AuthorsCristiana Berti (0000-0002-4591-0791, Universitat Rovira i Virgili), Arantxa Capdevila Gómez (0000-0003-3030-0488, Universitat Rovira i Virgili), Carlota M Moragas-Fernández (0000-0003-3028-6663, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume26
Issue1
Pages149-168
Publication date2024-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-8849 • E-ISSN: 1741-3001
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14648849231225309
OpenAlexW4390490990
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited25

The rise of populism in Europe has been accompanied by increasing use of the term in the media. This has been studied in the European press from the democratic corporatist or liberal media systems, but there is a lack of studies on southern Europe and the polarized pluralist media system. Using a content analysis of newspaper articles, we investigate the journalistic construction of populism in Spain and Italy, two countries belonging to the polarized pluralist media system. Results show that the notion of populism is often negatively connotated but remains quite vague and “empty”. Unlike previous results in northern and western European countries, political partisanship and parallelism play an important role in the use of populism in newspapers

Democracy · Media studies · Newspaper · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Sociology · Media Influence and Politics · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Social Media and Politics · Law

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