Right-Wing Populism and the Media

During the last few decades several new right-wing populist parties have entered the political stage. They did so, however, with varying success. Several explanations have been put forward to account for these differences in electoral success. Extant literature has focused on demand-side theories, but in recent years more and more attention has been paid to internal and external supply-side factors as these are crucial in determining the electoral breakthrough of especially new parties. Recently, scholars have increasingly paid attention to supply side factors that are central to the current mediatized political environment. In this setting, it are the mass media that can ‘make or break’ these new parties. However, since this field is still in its infant shoes research is dispersed and often unconnected. This paper gives a first critical synthesis and discussion of the literature on (right-wing) populism and the media, coming from political science, communication science, and journalism studies, and connecting both qualitative and quantitative studies.