Effects of populist communication Populist political communication Outline 1.Communication effects 2. 2.Populist communication and its effects – assumptions 3. 3.Empirical research Political effects of communication •Why communication matters in politics and why more than ever before? •Media consumption (traditional, new media) •Electoral campaigning – permanent campaigns •Individualization of society – weakening of party identification (more „goods“ available on the electoral market) •Framing – what is framing? •Priming •Cueing • • Populist communication and its effects •Unprecedented rise of populist political actors (and widespread populist communication) •Populist communication gets wide media coverage -> people exposed to pop. communication (perhaps even more than to non-pop) •Media may produce populist content - > political/discoursive opportunity structures •Is there something specific about populism? • • • • Populist content and effects of communication •Based on moral distinction between the good people and bad elites •Attribution of responsibility/attribution of blame •Negative framing – negative evaluation of those who are blamed •The negative frames about the elites and the other – accessible to the people •Social identity theory – in groups and outgroups: positive evaluation of own group and negative of the other •Emotional communication – the feel of threat Areas affected by populist communication • • • • Populist communication Attitudes Values Behavior/voting Emotions Effects of populist communication on voting •Hameleers et al. (2018): Framing blame: toward a better understanding of the effects of populist communication on populist party preferences • •RQ: Does populist political communication affect voting for populist parties? • •Not as tautological question as it may seem at first sight • Effects of populist communication on voting •The content of populism – the deep divide between the elites and the people •Attribution of blame/attribution of responsibility as a key concept: „the people as the innocent in-group victimized by the culprit other“ •Political opinions linked to attribution of responsibility -> populist blame exposure should lead to support for populist parties and rejection of governmental parties •Not equal effects among all expected – political cynicism as a catalyst •Effects of host-ideology related attitudes – national and exclusive identity should lead to higher support for PRR •Blame perception as the mediator – who is responsible? • Effects of populist communication on voting •Method: framing experiment •The logic •Three frames: populist, EU vs national government vs no-blame (news article about Dutch labor market situation) • •Hypotheses verified: populist political communication leads to increase of support for populist party and decrease of support for largest governmental party (+ the role of national and exclusive identity) • • • Effects of populist communication on attitudes •Hameleers et al. (2019): “They Did It”: The Effects of Emotionalized Blame Attribution in Populist Communication •Similar logic as in the previous study but enriched by the stress on emotions in popcom and attitudes as DV •Blame attribution leads to populist attitudes •National/European identity mitigate blame perception – national identity lower BA to national government (European to the EU) •Fear increases the acceptance of blame attribution Effects of populist communication on attitudes •Effects of populist communication confirmed but the logic different compared the national and European level of politics •The national level needed emotional communication •Populist attitudes bolstered by populist communication (mostly the perception of representation) •Also national and European identity weakens the effects of populist blames + different role of emotions Effects of populist communication on attitudes •Wirz et al. (2018): The Effects of Right-Wing Populist Communication on Emotions and Cognitions toward Immigrants •RW pop com = populist content and style + anti-immigration attitudes •Combining RW popcom in the media and party system features •People more affected when a relevant PRR party present •RW popcom leads to negative perception of migrants •Which parts of attitudes (emotional or cognitive) affected by RW popcom and how? •Combination of media content analysis and panel survey (GER, UK, FRA, SUI) •Populist content lead to emotional changes Effects of populist communication on behavior •Blassnig et al. (2019): Hitting a Nerve: Populist News Articles Lead to More Frequent and More Populist Reader Comments •how populist online news influences the number and content of reader comments •Some types of information (controversial, negative, emotionalized) leads to higher number of comments in online media •Populism shares some of comments-provoking characteristics -> •Populist news content produced by political actors or media should lead to higher number of comments. •Content effects – populist priming (and framing) creates/activates populist cognitive schemata •Populist news content produced by political actors or media should lead to populist content of comment on FB. • Effects of populist communication on behavior •Online news across Western European countries (FR, SUI, UK) •Coding of populist statements based on the literature in both media and comments •Regression analyses showing clear association between populist content and both number and content of comments •Implications: •Populist communication in the media leads to spreading of populist ideas (possibly accelerating the rise of populist politics) Conclusion •Populist communication affects various aspect of people`s life – attitudes, behavior, emotions •Theoretical explanations similar to other communication schemata – framing, priming, cueing •Communication matters – opportunities structures, change of voting behavior, interaction between people •Given the populist content and its illiberal nature – potentially important consequences for the quality of democracy as well