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Mediated Campaigns and Populism in Europe pp 51–74Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Journalism Norms and the Absence of Media Populism in the Irish General Election 2016

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Part of the book series: Political Campaigning and Communication ((PCC))

Abstract

The 2007 financial crisis and consequent programme of austerity brought deep disruption to Irish politics and exasperated public hostility towards mainstream politics and so-called elites. As the 2016 Irish General Election marked a historic low in support for established parties, this chapter examines the extent to which Irish news media inflamed populist and anti-political sentiment. Within the context of intensified mediatization (Mazzoleni, Mediatization of Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2014) and widespread disaffection with political institutions, we expect to find that particular types of media, specifically tabloid and new digital media, enable anti-elite populist messaging by reflecting a higher tendency towards strategic game frames and personalization. However, we find that although the strategic game frame dominates coverage, only 2 per cent of stories reference any form of elitism and only 12 per cent manifest a definite populist rhetoric. These findings are discussed in terms of the prevailing values of professional journalism norms in Irish media.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Communications, Dublin City University, Dublin, Republic of Ireland

    Eileen Culloty

  2. Dublin City University, Dublin, Republic of Ireland

    Jane Suiter

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  1. Eileen Culloty
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  2. Jane Suiter
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Susana Salgado

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Culloty, E., Suiter, J. (2019). Journalism Norms and the Absence of Media Populism in the Irish General Election 2016. In: Salgado, S. (eds) Mediated Campaigns and Populism in Europe. Political Campaigning and Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98563-3_3

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