Populist Communication

Dr. Eitan Tzelgov, Senior Lecturer in Politics

Did you say populism?

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  • Everyone's been talking about it, but what is it? How do we know?

What do we think?

  • Is it about opposing democracy?

  • Is it extreme?

  • Is it spreading fake-news?

  • Is it related to the radical-right?

  • Is it Donald Trump?

  • Is it about opposing democracy?

  • Is it extreme?

  • Is it spreading fake-news?

  • Is it radical-right?

  • Is it Donald Trump?

Not exactly

Approaches to the study of populism: Strategic

The Strategic Approach (Kurt Weyland)

  • Emphasis on the leader

  • Leaders combat the established “political class” and try to rise above it

  • The 'people' are too disorganized and their will is unclear

  • Reliance on 'numbers': popular support that embodies the 'will of the people' (such as plebicite, referenda, rallies)

  • Direct identification with followers (and constant presence) “Chavez is the people, and the people is Chavez.”

  • All of these at the expense of institutional base

  • Due to the tenuous links to their mass base, these leaders' popularity can fluctuate significantly

  • The strategic approach yields interesting predictions about policies once in power, mainly “inherent penchant for confrontation and conflict''

Approaches to the study of populism: A Political Style

A Political Style (Benjamin Moffitt)

  • A decline in the importance of political cleavages

  • A crisis with mainstream parties

  • “repertoires of performance that are used to create political relations''

  • Contemporary political landscape is becoming 'stylised', and 'performative' features are particularly (and increasingly) important

  • The people against 'The elite', 'the establishment', 'the state' or 'the system' woh have 'let down', 'ripped off' them

  • There is a crisis generally built around the collapse of representation, which requires swift action

  • Thinking about populism as a style enables us to see it as something employed by mainstream parties/leaders us well

Approaches to the study of populism: A Political Logic

A Political Logic (Laclau)

  • Views populism as a a positive development

  • Distinguishes between left-wing and right wing populism

  • Emphasizes antagonism against current economic, representative and governmental institutions

  • The left emphasizes inclusivity of multiple groups within 'the people'

  • Demands systemic change

  • 'if populism consists in postulating a radical alternative within the communitarian space, a choice in the crossroads on which the future of a given society hinges, does not populism become synonymous with politics? The answer can only be affirmative' (Laclau, 2005a, p. 47).

Approaches to the study of populism: Ideational

The Ideational approach (Mudde)

  • Vertical differentiation based on morality: 'the pure people' versus 'the corrupt elite'

  • Politics should express of the 'general will' of the people

  • Who are the people? Depends on the host ideology (can be social populism/national populism)

  • Why ideational? It is a set of ideas rather than an ideology

Approaches to the study of populism: A Communication Style

Communication Style (Jagers, de Vreese)

The People

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  • They are morally superior. The people share common wisdom, preferences and worries. They are pure and good. They are authentic, moral, charismatic, credible intelligent, competent

  • The working class, hard working Americans etc.

  • In general, populists will use People-centric style of communication: Using words such as '(the) people', '(the) public', '(the) citizen(s)', '(the) voter(s)','(the) taxpayer(s)', '(the) resident(s)', '(the) consumer(s) and '(the) population'. Overall, the people (whatever it is), is the one, cohesive, pure, legitimate political community.

  • Populists will express closeness to the this community

  • They will highlight its virtues, its claims, its concerns

  • They will highlight its political sovereignty and will

The Elite/system

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  • Who is keeping the people down?

  • Anti-elite/establishment: political elites (parties, government, ministers), but also the media (media tycoons, journalists), the state (administration, civil service), intellectuals (universities, writers, professors) or economic powers (multinationals, employers, trade unions, capitalists).

  • They are corrupt, exploitative, immoral. They are evil and conspiring, selfish and arrogant, unaccountable and incompetent.

The Outgroup

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  • Who threatens the people from within?

  • Members of the outgroup are viewed as the enemy from within, a fifth column. They are blamed for the misfortunes of society.

  • Out-group exclusion: specific population segments are stigmatized and excluded from 'the people'; they are defined as being a threat to and a burden on society (immigrants, liberals, minorities)

  • Portrayed as illegitimate in the populist discourse and (often implicitly) need to silenced/eliminated/physically removed/punished

Horizontal and Vertical Differentiation

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Where is it? Dimensions of politics

Left/Right

  • Left vs. Right

  • Economic, left/right dimension that is primarily concerned with wealth redistribution, the welfare state, and regulation of the economy (Marks et al. 2006).

  • The Left generally supports greater economic regulation, while the Right is generally more supportive of greater individual economic freedom.

GAL/TAN

  • Green, Alternative, Liberal vs. Traditional, Authoritarian, Nationalism

  • This is a cultural dimension-the so-called “new politics”. Captures several noneconomic issues-for example, environmental protection, lifestyle choices, immigration and ethnic minority issues, etc.“Green, Alternative, Liberal”

  • parties typically support more expansive personal freedoms-greater civil liberties, same-sex marriage, a greater role for citizens in governing

  • parties on the “Traditional, Authoritarian, Nationalism” end of the spectrum reject these ideas, favoring instead law and order; tradition; the belief that the government should be a strong moral authority

Where can we find it?

Everywhere!

Does populism thrive in Social Media?

Social Media (Gerbaudo)

  • Crisis of legitimacy, authority, and trust in the mainstream media

  • Social media offers a grass-root, individualized alternative

  • Social media discussions as the new town square where individuals find like-minded others

  • Algorithmic architecture: aggregation, creation of networks, favoring emotional, extreme material

Social Media

  • social media provide direct access to the public without external interference; they foster the potential for targeted, personalized forms of communication

  • Create a feeling of community, belonging and recognition among otherwise scattered groups

  • See Engesser et al. (2017) ; Gerbaudo (2018)

  • Gives platform for direct, presonalized, emotive rhetoric

  • All of these conditions seem conducive to populist communication

Let's get to work

  • Is it 'populist'? Why (People/anti-elite/out-group)?

  • Left or Right?

  • Who tweeted it?

Place the tweet

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Tweet 1

“If you hate America, there are 194 other countries on planet Earth. Pick any flag you like. The lunatic Left hates America. This is insane. WATCH”

25302 likes

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Tweet 1, placed

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Tweet 2

“The people telling you we can't solve the climate crisis helped create it. The people telling you they won't sell off our NHS can afford private healthcare. The people telling you we can't scrap tuition fees went to university for free. They are not on your side.”

19947 likes

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Tweet 2, placed

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Tweet 3

“In case the BBC, ITV and Sky don't tell you, total chaos in the Channel this morning. Border Force can't cope, there have been several beach landings and some migrants have now disappeared into the hills. It is an invasion and the government does nothing.”

17226 likes

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Tweet 3, placed

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Tweet 4

“What a hypocrite. Elon Musk has received billions in corporate welfare from U.S. taxpayers. Now he wants to stop 30 million Americans who lost jobs from receiving $600 a week in unemployment benefits, while his wealth has gone up by $46.7 billion over the past 4 months. Pathetic.”

83416 likes

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Tweet 4, placed

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Tweet 5

“Corbyn and his friends in Parliament don't trust you to make this decision - but I do. Let's put it to the people: more delay with Corbyns , or Brexit delivered on October 31st”

11227 retweets

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Tweet 5, placed

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Tweet 6

“When we say it's time to provide health care to all our people, we're told we can't afford it. But if the stock market is in trouble, no problem! The government can just hand out $1.5 trillion to calm bankers on Wall Street. ”

161143 likes

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Tweet 6, placed

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"If you hate America... The lunatic Left hates America!" Who tweeted it?

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"Sell off our NHS! They are not on your side!" Who tweeted it?

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"It is an invasion and the government does nothing!" Who tweeted it?

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"Elon Musk has received billions! Pathetic!" Who tweeted it?

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"More delay with Corbyns, or Brexit!" Who tweeted it?

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"The government hands out $1.5 trillion to Wall Street!" Who tweeted it?

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Research time

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  • Can we think about the type of ideology representedin the tweet (left/right/na)

  • Can we think about the cleavage (economic/cultural/na)

  • Can we identify populist componets in tweets:

    • people centrism (the in-group)
    • Anti-elitism
    • out-group

OK, let's do some coding

  • open the excel sheet

  • look at the tweets

  • talk among your group members and decide what components the tweet has

  • It could be none, 1, 2, or all

  • Write them in the spreadsheet as 1 or 0

  • Ask me if you have any questions

  • Report your results to me (save as group number)

Coding exercise summary

  • Was it easy?

  • Were difficult cases?

  • Were there difficult categories?

  • What do you think about this exercise? What did you learn?