Populist Communication

How can we make sense of the current age of global political disruption when populism leaves norms overturned and the future form of democracy unpredictable?

Political representatives are no longer elected for their experience and expertise but out of a desire for an ephemeral sense of authenticity, a direct connection to citizens, and the certainty of the truths they tell. But when populists project these ideas and claim to represent the citizenry, what is reality and what is strategic performance for the media? This conceptually rich book explores the performative strategies of the populist politicians who disrupt the normative order with acts of 'truth-telling'. It disentangles their complex use of mediafrom their appeal to news values through spectacular disruptions to sophisticated social media commentaryin repertoires of mediated performances. Based on vigorous empirical research in both established and transitional democracies, it develops a theoretical framework of populist communication in the new media environment.

Explores the ways in which populists engage with and represent political reality. Takes an integrated approach to the media ecology, based on the empirical investigation of communicative practices across off- and online stages. Discusses six keyhole performances by two populist parties in South Africa and the UK to tell the story of how populist communication plays out.

Autorentext
Lone Sorensen is Lecturer in Media and Communication in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds, UK.

Inhalt

Part I: Populist Communicative Process in Comparative Perspective.- Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Disrupting Transitional and Established Democracy: The Stories and Contexts of UKIP and the Economic Freedom Fighters.- Chapter 3: A Communication Approach to Political Populism: Ideology, Performance and Representation.- Part II: Populism as Ideology: Populism on Ideology.- Chapter 4: Populist Ideology and Communicative Process.- Chapter 5: UKIP's and the EFF's Populist Ideology.- Chapter 6: The Ideological Process of Populism.- Part III: Populism as Performance: Populism on Performance.- Chapter 7: Political Performance and Populist Representation.- Chapter 8: UKIP's and the EFF's Disruptive Performances.- Chapter 9: Populist Disruptive Performance: The Forms and Functions of Populist Representation.- Part IV: Populism as Mediation: Populism on Mediation.- Chapter 10: The Hybrid Mediation of Populism.- Chapter 11: Hybrid Mediation: UKIP's and the EFF's Performative Assemblages.- Chapter 12: Mediated Populism as Process.- Chapter 13: Conclusion.