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Political communication and populism
Norbert Merkovity and Büsra Özyüksel
The scholarship of political communication has a long tradition in European
academic research, and distinguishes different periods in the evolution of
political communication in Europe. The first period is shaped by the party
logic. The second acknowledges the emergence of television and the alienation
of voters from politics. The third period witnesses the rise of the media logic,
while the fourth period - that of present times - points out the self-mediatised
nature of political behaviour and the importance of social media channels in the
process of political communication. Distinguishing these periods also allows us
to give a historical perspective to the concepts of media logic, network logic, and
mediatisation. It also grants stable grounds for examining the recent successes
of populist political communication in European countries, the role of media in
the spread of populism, and citizens’ reactions. Populism is indeed shaping the
patterns of political communication across Europe. Therefore, understanding
the motives of different actors’ communication is of essential importance.
Keywords: political communication, media logic, network logic, self¬
mediatisation, populism
The research on political communication in Europe started in the 1960s and
has evolved into a significant area in political science and media studies,
which delivered lots of important and relevant results on, for instance,
election campaigns, political actors’ attitudes and behaviours, the role of
media in political issues, or electoral behaviour. The fall of socialist regimes
in 1989/90 has also resulted in an important contribution to the field from
Central and Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, most of the findings presented
in this chapter will reflect comments by Western European scholars on
contemporary European democracies, as a more detailed overview of regional
divergences in the existing literature would go beyond the scope of our text.
This chapter will not attempt to introduce all research directions of political
communication. However, it will highlight those tendencies through which
political actors’ communication could be understood and explained. After
the introduction to the periods of political communication, and into the
media and the network logic, mediatisation and self-mediatisation will be