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Political communication and populism ] 147
a. Populist political communication and citizens
Populism reguires an understanding of communication mechanisms. Despite
ongoing disagreements about the concept, a growing consensus views
populism through the lens of communication and media. Ihis approach
offers unique and essential insights into how populism works in Europe,
particularly considering a rapidly changing high-choice media environment
that may have transformed the very foundations of mainstream populist
success (Van Aelst et al. 2017; Vreese et al. 2018).
References to, and a focus on, a homogeneous people can be perceived as
a crucial component of the populist style (e.g. Canovan 1999; Mudde 2004;
Taggart 2004). ‘Homogeneous people’ indicates that the major distinguishing
element of populism is the formation of an in-group of the ‘people. However,
because ‘the people’ is a vague term and concept, it has various implications
and multiple interpretations - e.g. the people as sovereign, class, ethnic
group, nation, ordinary people, etc. (Reinemann et al. 2019, 3). These various
meanings of the people might be communicated openly or implicitly in
populist messaging.
Populist communication has significant impact on citizens’ political
attitudes, emotions, and behaviours. Some academics even believe that
medias attention to populist leaders and its transmission of populist ideas
is one of the primary factors in populism’s political success (Hameleers et al.
2019). It is critical to analyse the congruence, the source, and the sensitivity
of populist messages in order to contextualise demand-side characteristics
of voters and comprehend the impacts of populist communication.
For example, Matthes and Schmuck (2017) determined that populist
communication was more compelling to individuals with lower levels of
education. According to Bos et al. (2013), populist appeals are successful
among the politically sceptical. The empirical findings of Hameleers and
Schmuck (2017) claim that the support of the source is crucial in adopting
populist messages: only citizens who feel connected to, or support the source
are favourably impacted by populist communication. Populist communication
is most compelling to a selected segment of citizens whose pre-existing
convictions are consistent with the message.
Another critical element to consider is the resonance of populist
communication with real-life opportunity structures. At a national level,
this indicates that populist communication blaming economic elites may
have the most significant impact in countries that experienced the most
severe economic crisis in 2008/09, or refugee crisis in 2015. Messages that
blame immigrants for everyday challenges that citizens are facing may have
the most significant impact in nations that have recently dealt with a large
inflow of immigrants, such as Germany.
The success of populist political parties in diverse countries may also be
used to explain resonance. As a result, individuals in societies where populist