Is populism really represented as a threat? An analysis of media discourse on populism in Belgium, France and Spain
(2025) Acta Politica : international journal of political science — Vol. Online first (2025)
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- Authors
Bailly, Jessy 
- Abstract
- This article examines whether populism is depicted as a threat by news media in Dutch-speaking Belgium, French-speaking Belgium, France and Spain. It studies how "populism(s)"and "populist(s)" (hereafter populis*) are used in 2019 news media content. In relation to scholarship focusing on media uses of populis*, the paper argues that the examined news media content does not systematically depict populism or populists as a threat. While the media sometimes exhibit anti-populist stances-whether adversarial or accommodative/banal-the term populis* is often employed in media content in a non-critical and purely descriptive manner. It typically alludes to an elusive phenomenon without providing any subjective indication of whether it signifies something detrimental towards politics or democracy.
- Affiliations
Institut Catholique de Paris ICP Mesopolhis - Centre méditerranéen de sociologie, de science politique et d’histoire Mesopolhis
Citations
Bailly, J., Shchinova Shchinov, N., Nuevo Gascó, R., Roginsky, S., & Reuchamps, M. (2025). Is populism really represented as a threat? An analysis of media discourse on populism in Belgium, France and Spain. Acta Politica : international journal of political science, Online first. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-025-00393-7 (Original work published 2025)