Populism and media opportunity structures. The case of new media
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18778/2300-1690.19.05Keywords:
populism, political communication, public sphere, new media, Facebook, TwitterAbstract
Although many scholars have long emphasized the importance of the media as an important variable explaining various aspects of populism, research into the relationship between populism and the media has intensified only in the last few years, and the number of studies is relatively limited. Understandably, there is even less research into the use of social media by populist actors. The aim of this article is to analyze the mutual relationship between populism and social media considered as media opportunity structures. Secondly, the paper aims to critically analyze the assumption of many papers that claim there is a simple, functional relationship between social media and populism. This task will be accomplished by a critical reconstruction of the field of research on the use of new media by populist actors and a presentation of the main trends and the results of these studies. It should be emphasized that the article focuses on political actors, not ordinary users of the new media who resort to populist communication strategies.
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