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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
