Mediated Campaigns and Populism in Europe

Abstract

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 papaers 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. Comparing election news coverage in Europe: theoretical and empirical foundations of the approach / Susana Salgado, Eileen Culloty, and Agnieszka Stępińska -- Media coverage of Greece's September 2015 election campaign: framing and interpreting the issues at stake / Sylianos Papathanassopoulos and Iliana Giannouli -- Journalism norms and the absence of media populism in the Irish General Election 2016 / Eileen Culloty and Jane Suiter -- The 2015 election news coverage: beyond the opopulism paradox, the intrinsic negativity of political campaigns in Portugal / Susana Salgado -- Campaign coverage in Spain: populism, emerging parties, and personalization / Óscar G. Luengo and Belén Fernández-García -- Political news coverage of the 2015 election campaign in Croatia: populism and media / Marko Mustapić, Ivan Balabanić, and Mateja Plenković -- The 2015 Parliamentary election in Poland: a political déjà vu / Agnieszka Stępińska, Artur Lipiński, and Kinga Adamczewska -- Not all about trends: persistent singularities in election news coverage / Susana Salgado.