This book analyses the coverage of elections that occurred between September 2015 and February 2016 in six European countries (Greece, Portugal, Poland, Croatia, Spain and Ireland). The sample examined includes all news stories published during the official electoral campaign in different types of media outlets: three newspapers per country covering centre-left and centre-right wing political leaning, as well as reference and tabloid papers; three main television news broadcasts covering commercial/private and public broadcast television channels; and three papers that are published only online, taking into account their levels of audience and importance within each national media and political system. The book also examines different connections to the EU and to the Euro Crisis. Questions such as the following guide the overall analysis: In what ways is news election coverage similar and different in these countries? Which issues are mostly covered by the news media and how? Are there patterns of election news coverage in these six European countries? This book is indispensable reading for researchers and students in the field of the media coverage of election campaigns, political communication and populism. Chapters 4 and 8 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

In an increasing number of countries around the world, populist leaders, political parties and movements have gained prominence and influence, either by electoral successes on their own or by influencing other political parties and the national political discourse. While it is widely acknowledged that the media and the role of communication more broadly are key to understanding the rise and success of populist leaders, parties and movements, there is however very little research on populist political communication, at least in the English-speaking research literature. Originating from a research project funded by the European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST), this book seeks to advance this research. It includes examinations 24 European countries, and focuses on three areas within the context of populism and populist political communication: populist actors as communicators, the media and populism and citizens and populism.

The studies in this volume conceptualize populism as a type of political communication and investigate it comparatively, focusing on (a) politicians’ and journalists’ perceptions, (b) media coverage, and (c) effects on citizens. This book presents findings from several large-scale internationally comparative empirical studies, funded by the European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST), focusing on communication and the media within the context of populism and populist political communication in Europe. The studies are based on comparative interview studies with journalists and politicians, a large-scale comparative content analysis, and a comparative cross-country experiment using nationally representative online-surveys over 15 countries. The book also includes advice for stakeholders like politicians, the media, and citizens about how to deal with the challenge of populist political communication. This enlightening volume is ‘populist’ in the best sense and will be an essential text for any scholar in political science, communication science, media studies, sociology and philosophy with an interest in populism and political communication. It does not assume specialist knowledge and will remain accessible and engaging to students, practitioners and policymakers. Chapters 1 and 12 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Discordant Democracy: Noise, Affect, Populism, and the Presidential Campaign paints a portrait of the political experience at a pivotal time in American political and social history. The modern political campaign is aestheticized and assimilated into mass culture, divorced from fact and policy, and nakedly tethered to emotional appeal. Through a multi-modal comparative examination of the sonic and emotional cultures of the 2008 and 2016 campaigns, Justin Patch raises critical queries about our affective relationship to modern politics and the impact of emotional campaigning on democracy. Discordant Democracy asks: how do campaign sounds affect us; what role do we the electorate play in creating and sustaining these sounds and affects; and what actions do they generate? Theories from anthropology, cognitive science, sound studies and philosophy are engaged to grapple with these questions and connect bombastic mass-mediated political events, campaign media and individual sonic experience. The analyses complicate notions of top-down campaigning, political spin, and enthusiastic millennial populism by examining our role in producing and animating political sounds through conversation, applause, laughter, media, and music.

How elections are reported has important implications for the health of democracy and informed citizenship. But, how informative are the news media during campaigns? What kind of logic do they follow? How well do they serve citizens?e Based on original research as well as the most comprehensive assessment of election studies to date, Cushion and Thomas examine how campaigns are reported in many advanced Western democracies. In doing so, they engage with debates about the mediatization of politics, media systems, information environments, media ownership, regulation, political news, horserace journalism, objectivity, impartiality, agenda-setting, and the relationship between media and democracy more generally. Focusing on the most recent US and UK election campaigns, they consider how the logic of election coverage could be rethought in ways that better serve the democratic needs of citizens. Above all, they argue that election reporting should be driven by a public logic, where the agenda of voters takes centre stage in the campaign and the policies of respective political parties receive more airtime and independent scrutiny. The book is essential reading for scholars and students in political communication and journalism studies, political science, media and communication studies.

Aims to show that populism has suffered from being considered, usually in relation to particular contexts, and has therefore become a rather fractured and elusive concept. This book also seeks to provide a different definition of populism, a survey of other definitions and perspectives, and a guide to populist politics around the world.

This edited collection makes a unique contribution to analyses of the changing nature and challenges of mediated political communication, through a distinctive comparative discourse analytical approach. The book explores how politics is performed and discursively constructed in television news and current affairs in five countries (France, Greece, Italy, Sweden and the UK) and focuses on a moment in time in European politics characterized by challenging tensions; increased Euroscepticism, questioning of mainstream politics; accentuated gaps between the elite and the citizens, and polarizations between member states. Emphasising the performative and discursive dimensions of political communication, the chapters provide a detailed comparative analysis that is centred around three themes: how symbolic representations of politics are shaped by journalistic practices, genres and styles of news reporting; the language and performances of mainstream and populist political leaders; and the participation and representation of citizens’ voices.